^^^:;;4I^,V"^^;-':v>:^;/ ..;>-;^' 



HE WORL 
NINETY DAYS 

i BOOK OF TRAVELS 



ft. LHAFIOt 



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Class 




Bookl 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSnv 



AROUND THE WORLD 
IN NINETY DAYS 

A BOOK OK TRAVEL 

By FREDERICK CHAMBERLIN 



AUTHOR OF 
" In the Shoe String Country." 
"The Blow from Behind," etc 




THE C. M. CLARK PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. 

BOSTON, MASS., U. S. A. 

igo6 






LIBRARY Of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

APh 25 1906 

' CoDiTight Entry 

CLASS <2- XXc, No, 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1905, by 

The C. M. Clark Publishing Company, Inc.. 

Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 



All Rights Reservejl 



DEDICATION 



To my Father 
MR. EDWARD CHAMBERLIN 



TO THE READER 



Most of the plates in the Guam Chapter and a 
number of those concerning the Midways are from 
photographs made by Mr. E. S. Groves, of Hingham, 
Mass., and Commander Charles Fremont Pond, IT. S. 
N., respectively ; while the two pictures of the Alba- 
tross dance were made by Mr. Walter K. Fisher, of 
Palo Alto, Cal. Of the exceptional courtesy of these 
three gentlemen I desire to make this public acknowl- 
edgement. 

Aside from those just mentioned, I think there are 
not more than half a dozen other pictures in the book 
which were not taken by my Weno-Hawkeye, No. 4, 
4x5. 

I have poked some fun in these pages at certain 
people. I hope none of them will be ill-natured 
about it. They had their chance at me. This is 
mine. 

F. C. 
Munroe Terrace, 

Boston. 
20th Dec, 1905. 



CHAPTER INDEX 



CHAPTER 






PAGE 


I 


The Start 1 


II 


To Honolulu .... 






6 


III 


Hawaii and the Queen ? 






21 


IV 


Honolulu to the Midways 






56 


V 


The Midways 






65 


VI 


A Night in Guam 






91 


VII 


Neariug the End 






114 


VIII 


The Filipinos 






120 


IX 


Chasing Oruga 






140 


X 


Dewey's Victims and Manila 






175 


XI 


Aguinaldo .... 






186 


XII 


The Last of the Philippines 






196 


XIII 


China 






203 


XIV 


Homeward Bound 






231 


XV 


A Morning in Singapore 






238 


XVI 


To Ceylon .... 






248 


XVII 


Four Hours in Ceylon 






260 


XVIII 


Three Hours in Arabia 






269 


XIX 


The Red Sea ... 






280 


XX 


Four Hours in Egypt 






285 


XXI 


The Mediterranean 






296 


XXII 


Vesuvius .... 






301 


XXIII 


Rome ..... 






312 


XXIV 


The Last of Europe 






316 


XXV 


Home ..... 






326 


XXVI 


Reflections .... 






332 



AROUND THE WORLD 
IN NINETY DAYS 



CHAPTER I 



THE START 

In 1902 I wrote a book on the Philippine Question 
which attracted the attention of certain high officials. 

In early May, 1904, one of them casually wrote 
to know if I would like to do some work in the Islands. 
I replied that nothing would please me more, but 
I supposed it would be impossible to leave for so long 
a journey. With that the matter was dismissed. 

On June 19th, 1904, coming up from the South, 
I started Mrs. Chamberlin for Boston from Cincinnati 
and entrained for Chicago. On the 23d, Thursday 
evening, I left that city for Sioux City, Iowa. There 
I was confronted with an important lawsuit, the out- 
come of which would probably largely affect my future. 

There was more than mere constancy to my 
clients that made me take the train that night instead 
of attending a rare performance at the theatre with 
friends whom I had not seen in years. I yielded to 
superstition. For a long time I have believed that if 
I devote myself wholly to a problem the most intricate 
snarl will unravel. That was the sole reason why I 
did not postpone my departure for a day or even more. 

After dinner I cast my eyes about the library car, 
and saw the first propitious sign vouchsafed by the Fates 



AROU^W THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

in the form of the man who could help me the most of 
all on earth. My superstition was working. 

I'm afraid my approach to him was not very digni- 
fied, so elated was I. For four mortal hours we planned 
a campaign, and then separated. 

By ten on Friday morning I was hard at work 
with my local attorneys preparing for the first battle 
which was scheduled for Monday morning. At half- 
past two I was handed this dispatch from a Washington 
ofiicial: 

"Manila transportation arranged for either July 
first or August first. Wire which." 

(Signed) 

That was 24,967 volts all at once! Not "Will you 
go.''" or "Can you go.^^" — but only "Wire date you are 
going." 

The surprise was as great as if I had never thought 
of the journey. 

I was irrevocably engaged for October first, in 
Boston; and a voyage to Manila would require sixty 
days at sea. August first was too late, then. It was 
Friday, three days from San Francisco, and there was 
a large lawsuit to be instituted or compromised, upon 
which no steps could be taken till Monday ; and Mon- 
day evening, at seven, the last train would leave that 
would place me in San Francisco in time to catch the 
ship. 

One thing was fixed. I could not go unless that 
lawsuit was out of the way. My obligations to my 
clients demanded that. Could I dispose of it, on 
Monday, before seven in the evening ? If not, I could 
not imdertake the journey. 

Mrs. Chamberlin's last train would leave Boston 
at two o'clock on Sunday. She must, therefore, be 
notified now. 

The fact that it was the tenth anniversary of our 
marriage was a prominent factor in my plans. 

In less than fifteen minutes I had decided to go if 
the legal controversy were compromised and to proceed 
upon the assumption that it would be. 



THE START 

I therefore telegraphed Washington that I would 
go on July first if transportation could be early enough 
arranged for Mrs. Chambei'lin. 

Then the following telegram went to Mrs. Cham- 
berlin where we sleep nights, in Wollaston, one of the 
best bedrooms that Boston has, and where I supposed 
her to be. 

"If Washington telegraphs you transportation for 
Manila provided for you take Boston & Albany two 
o'clock Sunday for Chicago. There take Overland 
Limited over Union Pacific, leaving Chicago North- 
western station eight Monday evening. Purchase 
tickets to San Francisco in Boston and wire ahead for 
berth from Chicago. I meet your train Omaha Tues- 
day morning. Bring only hand baggage. We can 
purchase outfit in San Francisco. " 

That stai'ted things. If I could not go, I could 
stop her at Omaha. 

The first result arrived early Saturday morning 
before I was awake. It came from one of those little 
church and grocery store towns up in the north of 
New Hampshire, within one mile of the Canada line, 
in this guise: 

Night message. 
West Stewartstown, N. H. 
Just arrived. Everything lovely. 

F. M. C. 

Now things were mighty squally. The situation 
was this. She was some twelve hours ride from Bos- 
ton, and dependent upon only two trains a day. The last 
one that would enable her to reach Boston before two 
Sunday afternoon would leave West Stewartstown at one 
o'clock on Saturday, and it was eight Saturday morning 
and she yet knew nothing of our -proposed trip. But 
the worst factor of the situation was that they who live 
in that locality have never yet had to learn the value of 
time. For example : years ago I was there on a Saturday, 
in constant apprehension because of the delicacy of a 
very nervous negotiation which I was conducting at 
long range. But nothing came to relieve my anxiety 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

and I spent bad hours till Monday morning, when over 
came the telegraph operator. As he handed me what 
I had been suffering for for the last two nights so that 
I could not sleep, he explained "I thought I'd bring 
it over. You might be in a hurry for it." 

I thanked him and felt very grateful until I saw 
that he must have received the message more than 
forty-eight hours previously. 

Upon the successor of this country telegraph op- 
erator depended our trip. The task was to reach 
Mrs. Chamberlin in four hours time from Sioux City, 
and she must also receive within the same time a tel- 
egram from Washington, in response to one I had 
sent notifying the authority at the capital of Mrs. 
Chamberlin's change of address. Suppose she were 
riding. Suppose she had gone to walk. Suppose she 
had gone calling without saying where. Suppose the 
Washington authority were not in his office when my 
telegram reached there. Suppose — a hundred small 
things, any one of which would cause delay too long. 
Then, as I well knew, the country telegraph agent was 
only at his office about train times. 

To West Stewartstown went a duplicate of my above 
telegram. At two in the afternoon came the following 
from Washington: 

" Confer with Captain B , 36 New Montgomery 

Street, San Francisco, who has been directed furnish 
transportation to Manila for yourself and wife on trans- 
port sailing noon, July first. By Direction. 

, Quartermaster. 

So much gained ! Now to hear from New Hamp- 
shire. " Chaser" after " chaser" left Sioux City for that 
little town, but not a word was received from the operator 
there. Everything the telegraph superintendent could 
do gave no clew to the cloud of silence. We all con- 
cluded the office there was closed. 

At four-thirty came the first news : 

"Leaving for Boston. Leave Boston Sunday after- 
noon. Frances. " 



THE START 

Mrs. Chamberlin was all right if the trains would 
run on time. 

Sunday the two gentlemen upon whose presence 
I had depended for victory on Monday, notified me 
that they could not be in Sioux City until Tuesday. 

That was fatal and I was in agony until, in view 
of my plans, they at last consented to accommodate me. 

The fight began Monday at an early hour. Owing 
to the temperature of our adversary it was not deemed 
advisable for me, whom he thought his black beast, to 
be present, so I had to sit alone in my room and wait. 

At three in the afternoon a snag was struck that 
threatened to sink the ship, and my allies came to me 
for a final decision. Armed with the last hot shot they 
returned to the charge and at just six-thirty-five they 
entered my room and threw on the table the signed 
contract of compromise. 

Five minutes later I was speeding to the depot. 

Not a purchase had I made for the journey, and 
excepting what I wore and a change of linen, I had no 
wardrobe. 

At Omaha I spent the night writing letters and 
sending telegrams, until 5.00 a.m., when I lay down. 

At nine, the Overland Limited pulled in, on time. 

In a few minutes I was in possession of Mrs. C.'s 
story. Half an hour before her last train would leave 
West Stewartstown she had received my telegram, 
within a few minutes afterward she had the necessary 
Washington one, and ten minutes later she was on her 
way to the train. 

She rode in a day coach all night, missed the train 
for WoUaston she had depended upon and only suc- 
ceeded in securing one hour there to make preparations 
for a trip around the world. 

The only baggage she had comprised two dress-suit 
cases. 

We were off! 



CHAPTER II 



TO HONOLULU 



From Omaha to the coast there is, on the Union 
Pacific, but Httle notable scenery except where the train 
creeps up, around and over the Sierras, down into the 
valley of California; and when one wants to look the 
most eagerly the train is sure to enter the black mouth 
of a long snow shed. At only one point did I think the 
scenery as grand or beautiful as it is in the White 
Mountains, and that was at Summit, California, 7,000 
feet above the sea. 

Nothing could exceed in dreariness the dry sands 
of Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada. It is a continuous 
desert from the Nebraska corn fields to the California 
lowlands. 

In crossing California all I recall that appeared 
strange was the great size of geraniums, which grew 
to a height of small trees. 

Supposing that full instructions concerning my 
credentials, ostensible errand, (the true task was to be 
secret) needs, etc., etc., would be forwarded from 
Washington to the naval ofiBcer with whom I had been 
told by his superiors to confer, I telegraphed to him 
from Reno, Nevada, the train I was on, the name of our 
San Francisco hotel and that I would be obliged if he 
would send word to the latter place telling where I 
could see him in the evening after our arrival, for I did 
not possess a single document or letter that would open 
even one door for me in the Philippine officialdom. 

Imagine, then, my worry at finding only the follow- 
ing note at the Occidental: 

Sir: 

Referring to your telegram of the 29th instant, I 
have the honor to inform you if you will call at about 
nine Friday morning, transportation for yourself 



TO HONOLULU 

and wife and other necessary instructions will be given 
vou. Very respectfully, 

G. M. B , Captain U.S.N. 

I swallowed my wrath as best I might. But my 
disquieting reflection was that this discourtesy looked 
as if absolutely nothing had yet been arranged for me. 

We were astir before six on Friday morning, and 
by eight-thirty Mrs. Chamberlin was at the Emporium, 
an enormous department store, while I went to "confer 

with Captain B " according to my Washington 

telegrams. 

Upon arriving at the address before mentioned, it 
was reported to me that he was out. I asked if there 
were any message from Washington for me or about me, 
and was soon made to feel very small at discovering that 
nothing had been received except a formal order that 
we be given cabin passage to Manila. Not even my 
return had been arranged. 

What ought my course to be ? 

Should I await this Captain, who was evidently a 
stickler for red tape, or go on with no letters, no facilities 
to make my work a success, trusting to later cable 
messages or to good fortune to fight my way out of the 
diflficulties single-handed ? I glanced at the formal 
order which had been handed to me. It commanded 
the Quartermaster of the transport to "furnish Frederick 
Chamberlin and wife, unclassified, cabin accommoda- 
tions to Manila." Here, in my hands, was transporta- 
tion to the Orient. I had that, in any event, and 
would use it. 

In undergoing the formalities that were necessary 
to secure our cabin, I was asked to sign a passengers' 
register, which provided for all sorts of things to be 
done if we sunk and the book floated. The entries in 
one column in particular amused me. It was headed 
"Rank." So far as known I was the only passenger 
who did not take advantage of this opportunity to state 
pedigree, color, battles, profession, amount of money 
possessed, blood relation to some railroad president. 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

book-keeper, clerk, or somebody who had once been in 
the service of Uncle Sam. 

The true significance of all this rush to write out 
all the good things one dared to say about himself 
became apparent very shortly, but it looked to me twice 
as foolish as the usual autobiography of the youngest 
member; and so, I wrote nothing. But the others 
wrote thus, according to the girl from Richmond who 
said she overheard the Dutch clerk read the contents 
of the "rank" column to the artillery officer who was 
assigning cabins to the passengers according to degrees 
of rankness: 

"'A. B — , Major Sevent' Ardillery Corps.' " 
"Give him the best room on the boat and a seat at 
my table. He's the rankest fellow in the whole bunch," 
decided the artillery officer. 

"'C D , member off Legislature off ' " 

A. O. : "He's going to be the Old Fool and the 
General Nuisance on this trip, all right. He says he 
could have been United States Senator (Hie!) if he'd 
had a mind to. Nit!" 

(Note the "Hie!" That later becomes more 
prevalent.) "But put him up at my table and give him 
one of the best rooms. His cousin is an officer, and he 
may have some influential friends tucked away some- 
where who can help me sometime." 

"'M. N., Vidder off—'" A. O.: "Never mind 
of whom. She's that young tall one with the dark 
brown eyes, ain't she ? Just put her up at my table as 
near as you can and give her the best thing left on the 
ship — up at my end of the boat." 

" ' E F C , Deamster' " 

A. O.: "Aw! shove him way down below.' " 

"'Miss M B D , couzin off de' 

steenth bookkeeper off de champion 'soak de-Public 
R. R. Co.' Blays de mild guitar an' zings baze. Dark 
eyes. Likes uniforms, moonlight an' dancin.'" 

"After that guitar lady we drew last trip we'd 
ought to try these voices before we let 'em on. But 
give her the best thing left all 'round. This is a long 



TO HONOLULU 

voyage and we may want to travel on that road some- 
time." 

" 'M — N — , mother off a Heutenant in de Phihp- 
pine Scouts.'" 

A. O.: "Put her between decks. Tuck her in 
any old place, and move her around as often as you like. 
She's all alone and hasn't a friend aboard. Set her at 
the table with the mule drivers. We don't recognize 
the Scouts." 

'"X — Y, Vife off assistant surgeon. 4-11-44 t' 
ardillery.' Blain, highly educated, a berfect lady — 
about de most refined voman on de boat.' " 

A. O. : "Can't help it. She's not rank enough, 
so put her at table with the mule drivers and teamsters 
and send her down stairs." 

"'L— T. Son of Colonel of the lOOt' in- 

ventry' — on summer vacation.' " "Give him best room 
that is left and take him up to my table. His father has 
influence and may help me a good deal." 

"'A — D — T — . Vormer U. S. Conzul at Daho- 
may Slip. Now a lobbyist. Married rich.' " 

A. O.: "Put him up stairs. He's got way-up 
friends. Set him down in a good place." 

"'A — T — . Army nurse.' Vears tailor-made 
clothes and has splendid figure.'" 

A. O. was all attenion. " Wears tailor-made clothes .'' 
How's she do that.'^ Guess you'd better give her a 
pretty good room up at my end of the ship — and set her 
down at a good table." 

"'A — L — and vife, baymaster 40t' inventry; 
she's very handsome. Shust married.'" 

"He's an awful cad. A regular chump, but put 
them at a good table and give them best thing left." 

"'A — M — and vife. Quartermaster's clerk.' 
He's a zplendid fellow, highly educated, very polished 
man, but in poor health and had to give up provession; 
college graduate and all dat.' " 

' Can't help it. Throw him down stairs. He ain't 
in the army; ain't rank at all." 

"'T — D — . Stenographer. Navy yard, Cavite.' " 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

" Put him way down. Set all these clerks, teamsters 
and all such as far down as you can get them and herd 
them all up at the same table in the dining room saloon 
as far as you can. Get all us rank army people to- 
gether. Our social supremacy must be maintained." 

"'Frederick Chamberlin and wife. Unclassified.'" 

A. O. : " Civilian, eh ? Only ones on the boat. 
Probably some clerk who won't own it. Fire them down 
stairs. The table with the stenographers and clerks 
is good enough for them. Don't put them up with any 
of us rank people. Always keep us together, you know." 

Probably the reader already understands what we 
were soon to witness. 

At exactly noon, as announced, Friday, July 1, we 
withdrew from our pier. No. 12. The instant we started, 
the screws of the "Buford," another transport that had 
lain on the other side of the pier, turned, too. She was 
taking a regiment to Alaska. The cheering crowds, 
the swelling music of the "Buford's" band, happy,laugh- 
ing faces, tear-stained cheeks and misty eyes, and here 
and there a sob, a hurrying to a cabin to hide some vanish- 
ing face, the farewells shouted to and fro across the 
steadily widening stream that lay between ships and 
wharf, all made a scene full of animation and sentiment, 
the sense of which nobody could escape. 

In the city the air had been so cool that I had worn 
an extra suit of flannels and a rain coat. But before we 
were out of the jaws of the Golden Gate I was dressed 
in four union suits and three vests; and, then, wrapped 
in a steamer rug, was gradually freezing to death. The 
only thing that prevented such elimination of the writer 
at that point was the remembrance of the kindly advice 
from experienced friends who told me, a stranger to 
this coast, that at that time of the year we were sure to 
frazzle in the hot sun. 

Our cabin, which was an outside room on the main 
deck, next to the top deck, was on the starboard, beside 
the dining saloon. Our quarters were about equal in 
latitude and longitude to the usual double berth cabin 
on a first class Atlantic liner, six and a half feet square. 
10 



TO HONOLULU 

Owing to the little elevation above the water level each 
of these cabins was provided with an iron water-tight 
door. Inside of this, and never closed except in 
storm, was a lattice door, which was soon discarded for 
an overhanging curtain made from a borrowed piece of 
colored cotton print. 

For fresh air we depended upon a large porthole 
and a chute that stood in one corner. This had an 
adjustable nozzle from which came a strong current of 
air a number of degrees cooler than the surrounding 
atmosphere. 

In this house, with one camp-stool, were we sup- 
posed to live, if we could, for a month. 




U. S. A. Transport Sherman 



The "Sherman" was four hundred forty-seven 
feet long, with a beam of sixty-five. Around the 
promenade deck the distance was about a hundred feet 
less than the vessel's length. 

The best staterooms, — those for the "rank" people, 
— were here, the only entrances to them from this deck. 
These cabins left but little space for exercise, a path not 
more than four or five feet wide, except, at each corner, 
both fore and aft, there was an open parallelogram of say, 
fifty feet in length by fifteen feet in width. Here were 
held the knitting bees and the card parties. Here the 
"rank" ladies settled their rank questions. Here it 
was one could find the village gossips. 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

The steam heal was sadly needed the first night. 

In the evening at six-thirty, half an hour after the 
dressing signal, — all meals were announced by a Filipino 
boy who furiously beat a huge oriental gong in our ears 
as he circled the deck — my introduction to the dining- 
room servants was a plate of hot soup deposited between 
my collar and what the latter surrounded, although the 
location quickly changed to other parts of my person, 
just which I'll not say. It is best for a story teller to 
leave something to the reader's imagination. But I 
was reassured by the information that Casey always 
became as sober as was necessary when twenty-four 
hours had elapsed after leaving each port. 

The room-servants and bell-boys aboard were 
Filipinos. Hilario, a youth of perhaps twenty, was the 
one who took care of No. 27. 

My diary for the second day out, Saturday, July 2, 
is as follows : 

"Too shaky to get up. Sounds made by a seasick 
man next door upset me while I was leaning over to tie 
my shoes. 

"Lay in berth all day. Filipino servant says 'Don't 
like Aguinaldo.' No sun, cold and dark. White caps, 
but little motion. Temperature 61 degrees. Run 221 
miles." 

Sunday my illness was over. We were now as- 
signed to our permanent seats in the dining saloon. 
Breakfast was served at 7.30. As I looked at the differ- 
ent faces, the dresses, uniforms, jewelery, etc., etc., I 
saw that there had been a painful attempt to herd us 
in pens according to our supposed stations in life. The 
clerks and stenographers were put at one table because 
they were such. The rankest were given the choice 
seats, which were as far as possible from those of com- 
mon clay — the latter, anybody who did not possess an 
army commission. The top of the social ladder began 
at the quartermaster's table at the forward end of the 
room. 

Mrs. Chamberlin and I found ourselves with the 
clerks and stenographers. Casey still pursued us, but 
12 



TO HONOLULU 

I could see that he had bleached a good degree, as 
promised. 

Before long we found that the rank people outside 
of whose doors we usually seated ourselves, as there was 
no other place on board where one could sit unless on 
top of the smokestack (and a "Keep off the grass" sign 
kept one from even that point) advanced the claim that 
the occupants of each stateroom owned all the yard that 
lay immediately in front of it on the promenade deck, the 
only deck where first class passengers were supposed to 
sit. The sequence of this was, of course, that nobody 
who had cabins on the main deck could ever sit down, or 
stand, on the promenade deck. The rank ones, by 
looks, by mutterings, by a toss of the head, by pointings, 
by remaining in doors and looking cross, if one of our 
chairs happened to be on their side of the fence, made 
things decidedly uncomfortable. But we stood pat. 
Even if we were "unclassified," we had a right to be on 
the ship and to some place on the deck; and there we 
remained. 

The people who, like those at our table, were not 
rank, treated each other as if they were human beings 
inhabiting the same planet — each full of kindness and 
though tfulness for all. These people made life bearable, 
while the rank people were elevating their noses at each 
other in an endeavor first to seem to ignore the other's 
presence. 

One of the most outrageous things I ever saw was 
perpetrated by the rank crowd of ladies upon one, who, 
by her patience and ladylike behavior under such trying 
circumstances won the admiration of every man aboard, 
before we saw Manila. 

On this first Sunday, in the evening, there was an 
effort by the rank outfit to make music. Heavens! 
It was distressing; and some who had been accus- 
tomed to better things moved to another part of the deck. 
The wife of a department clerk aboard had been a pro- 
fessional singer for years and had a remarkably clear 
voice. The rank crowd set themselves near her chair, 
without, of course, indicating in any way that she was 
13 



AROUND THE WORLD ly jSriNETY DAYS 

on the deck, and she, understanding the situation, did 
not join the singing (?). There came a time, however, 
when they broke down on a song, and she, to help them 
over the weak ice, joined her trained voice with theirs, 
and suffering passengers hke ourselves began to drift 
toward her. The men, even of the rank crowd, were 
delighted and plied her for song after song; but no rank 
ladies even so much as looked in the direction from 
which came that bell-like voice. She, considering that 
the air was free, that no claims had been staked for so 
much of it as her sweet voice would employ, and being a 
gracious woman, although not rank, kindly responded 
and sang a number of the old songs which we requested. 
The effect was too infectious, even for the rank outfit, 
and they capitulated and followed her leading. Down 
on the main deck the second class passengers began to 
gather near the gangway beneath the little lady's chair 
and loudly applauded her efforts. 

Music seemed to have cut the social veil and the voy- 
age began to assume the guise of a pleasant family party 
affair. The officer whose duty it was to see that the pas- 
sengers had a good time was elated and enthusiastically 
announced a meeting at the same "corner" after dinner 
the following evening, and he especially requested, on- 
behalf of the entire party, that the singer would be 
prepared to sing several mentioned songs upon that 
occasion. 

But the next day! The air was full of scowls, up- 
lifted chins and turned-up noses. Not a one of the rank 
crowd saw the sweet-voiced lady all day. To her 
gracious nod to some of those who composed that im- 
maculate company who had sung with her only a few 
hours before, only stony stares were vouchsafed. 

When the evening came, true to her ladylike train- 
ing, she repaired with her songs to the chosen corner. 
The rank crowd, however, set themselves in another place 
as far removed from her as possible, and began their 
squall. The officer who had, on behalf of the entire ship, 
requested the special songs, was with them, too; and he 
never renewed his requests till near the end of the voyage, 
14 



TO HONOLULU 

when the rank people had to flee to this one voice the 
ship possessed. 

The process of ostracising this lady was steadily 
pursued until the quieter, real ladies and gentlemen 
aboard began carefully but surely to nullify the in- 
fluence of the codfish aristocracy set up by young 
army people. By the time the voyage was on its last 
half, the obtrusive rank crowd had almost disappeared 
and constituted a little slivery knot relegated to a niche 
in one corner. 

Positions were reversed. 

At noon on Sunday the temperature was 65 degrees. 

Monday, "The Fourth" the water was smoother 
and the air 73 degrees, so oif came two of my vests and 
one union suit. The tone of the whole ship warmed 
with the sun. Mrs. Chamberlin here joined the card- 
playing that several of our table companions had in- 
stituted. It continued until the end. My diary says 
"I got it for one game but escaped after that." 

The only celebration of the day consisted of the 
firing of a revolver by an exuberant boy, after sundown, 
the explosion of some fireworks, and the first singing 
among the soldiers, some seventy-five of whom we were 
carrying. As no one organization comprehended them 
all, they were called "casuals," just stray men who 
happened to be going on this boat. 

With the assistance of banjos and guitars they gave 
an enjoyable hour with their four-part, sad love songs. 

On this day a new reminder was inaugurated that 
we were on a journey to the tropics — the use of side 
awnings to protect the eye and to keep out the heat. 
I doubt if I have ever despised anything more than I 
did those awnings, and the way they were used. 

As the whole ship was run on army regulations, 
evidently drawn upon land, there was no discretion to 
be expected and none exhibited. The entire promenade 
deck was provided with thick canvas curtains. When 
they were unrolled and tied down any view of the sea 
was impossible. Early after breakfast the side of the 
ship toward the sun would be entirely enclosed, no 
15 



AROUND THE WORLD IX NINETY DAYS 

matter whether or not that was the only side from which 
a breeze was to be obtained. 

Following the noon meal, when the sun had passed to 
the other side of the boat these curtains were rolled up 
and those on the latter side were tied down; even 
if the wind had followed the sun. The regulations 
were framed to suit the sun. They would have had 
some sense had they been drawn to.be varied accord- 
ing to the breeze. 

Another custom of the "Sherman's" officers was the 
washing down of the decks at about 1 or 2 a.m. every 
night. A more annoying time could hardly be imagined. 
The swashing water, the noisy men, the grating of the 
scrubbing awoke all and, frequently, for the rest of the 
night. 

Once this operation resulted disastrously. One of 
our lady friends occupied an upper berth on the main 
deck. She lay just beside a large open porthole, from 
which an air scoop protruded for say eighteen inches 
out over the water to catch any breeze that might be 
blowing or that our motion might create. At 3 a.m., 
one of the hottest nights, just as she was in the most 
pleasing part of dreamland, the deck washer who 
manipulated the hose let its streaming nozzle fall over 
the rail while he and his companions proceeded with 
their scrubbing, supposing that the stream of water was 
running into the sea. Unfortunately the nozzle caught 
in the air scoop and a powerful two inch stream of 
cold sea water struck our sleeping lady friend in the 
back between her bared shoulders, flooded her berth, 
and made her believe the ship had foundered. She 
rushed from her cabin in mortal terror, and it was only 
after the whole deck was aroused by her shrieks and 
pleadings that the incident could be closed. 

On Tuesday the air was 74 degrees, the sea calm. 
Now began the dressing and the efforts of the rank 
people to outshine each other. A more unappropriate 
place could hardly be imagined. The dining saloon 
was a little cubby hole, about eight feet high, twenty 
feet wide, and twice as long. There was not a luxurious 
16 



TO HONOLULU 

appointment to the ship. It did not even carry a piano, 
to say nothing of an orchestra. The cook's galley, the 
serving table, the dish washers and the bathrooms flanked 
the main entrance to the saloon. In other words the 
surroundings were like a fourth-rate hotel, although the 
food was first class. Yet, in these circumstances the rank 
crowd, of whom I doubt if there was one who had 
$5,000 in cash or otherwise, proceeded to dress for 
dinner. And they actually paraded themselves in full 
evening dress, as near no dress as possible, with every 
bit of jewelry they could put their hands onto. Many 
of their costumes were positive frights. Their owners 
had discovered that their husbands, new, young army 
officers, befieved that socially they were ranker than any 
other people on earth or on sea. The wife, then, should 
dress accordingly. The results can be imagined far 
better than described. 

On the fifth of July the officers donned white duck, 
the ladies began to wear similar goods, and the blankets 
were removed from our cabins. 

The following day, the sixth, the temperature 
leaped to 77 degrees and I discarded one union suit and 
one vest. This was also the day all on board were re- 
quired to be vaccinated unless they had recently under- 
gone this ordeal. Immediately the ship was teeming 
with consternation and protest, but there was no escape, 
and the Chamberlins took their medicine as did the 
remainder. 

On the seventh the air took on two more degrees 
and I doffed another suit and another vest. Here we 
began to be introduced to the rank coterie and from 
new heights, scaled for the first time since leaving, felt 
as if we were still inhabitants of the same world with 
these splendid creatures. The next day, the eighth, 
the air was one degree cooler, 78 degrees, and I went 
below and added another union suit to my dress. Later 
in the day two vests went over the one to which I had 
reduced myself. As we were due at Honolulu the next 
day, the ship buzzed with gladness. A number of the 
passengers would there leave us and nobody was to 



AROrxn THE WORLD IX NINETY DAYS 

come on, so there would be a shifting of cabins and a 
new sci'amble for the best ones. 

It was on this last day that I learned that this 
family had become the object of considerable solicitude 
from the rank crowd. We were the only civilians 
aboard among hundreds of army, navy, and other 
government people. Inquiries we always parried; but 
that only added to the interest. The presence of one 
of the buttons of the Boston Press Club in my lapel led 
somebody to state that I was a newspaper man. That 
caused me to drop several degrees. Then somebody 
who knew that I had been trying to be a lawyer and that 
I was so known in Omaha, set me right; later another 
appeared who had read my book, but what I was 
going to the Philippines . for was what the rank people 
wanted to know; and that they could not discover. 
We were a mystery; and we might be of some slight im- 
portance. Hence, in the last day or so before Hawaii, 
things came our way rapidly. 

This alteration, however, was only amusing, and 
we held to our first friends. 

Saturday, the ninth, early in the morning, we sighted 
the Hawaiian Islands. The first view of them is majes- 
tic and beautiful. Those to the southwest of the island 
of Oahu, which is the one containing Honolulu, have 
huge mountains, some of them enormous volcanoes. 
Two exceed 13,000 feet in elevation; so that the first 
sight is of distant, cloud-capped mountains that appear 
to reach to the sky. 

So far we had had no rain, no heavy sea, no storm. 
One day had been like another. Card-playing, novel 
reading, knitting, eating, walking and the evening 
attempts at music had filled the lagging hours of all. 

In the smoking room, as elsewhere, the usual game 
of cards was known as "Five hundred." Poker had 
not yet made an appearance. The heat of the tropics, 
had, however, and I discarded all but my usual summer 
weight of clothing. 

The southern side of Oahu is the most beautiful 
natural approach to a land froni the sea that I have 



TO HONOLULU 



ever seen. The mountains are so low that the many 
shaded green trees that cover them chng even to their 
very summits. Moreover, these heights look the way one 
likes to have mountains appear. They are symmetrical, 
conical, very sharp pointed, scores of them always in 
view. Beneath the darker greens of the trees on the 
mountain sides are miles on miles of a broad very light 
green belt that rises from the water-level, way around 
the island as far as the eye can see. It is composed of 
vast sugar cane plantations. 

As we were coming in sight of Diamond Head, the 




Diamond Head Light in the Moonlight 

extinct volcano that guards the entrance to Honolulu 
Harbor, Mrs. Chamberlin was taken violently ill with 
what some insist is appendicitis. 

The pain increased, and with sinking hearts we 
realized that she was fated to undergo another of what 
was known in our family as an "attack." Five times in 
two years had these occurred. Each one had demanded 
heroic treatment by physicans and trained nurses. 

The "Sherman" was due to sail from Honolulu in 
twenty-four hours. 

19 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

Could a blacker outlook be imagined than that 
which confronted us ?-- Ten days, we believed, from such 
aid as was available at home! This might be the time 
when an operation would be absolutely necessary. 
What sort of surgeons did they have in this little island ? 
Did they have trained nurses ? Did they have a man 
who had ever treated appendicitis ? What did this 
mean to us ? Were we to stop here for a dangerous 
illness in this heat ? That would be fatal, for excessive 
heat is the only thing Mrs. C. cannot well bear. 

We had one consolation — the Queen of this beautiful 
land that we could see gliding by our porthole. This was 
hers, this unknown country, these grand hills, these 
great mountains, the Queen's, and she was our friend. 
Everything in Honolulu would be brought to our assist- 
ance at her word, and as these thoughts came to me, 
I felt the exhilaration of a hope, of the battle turning to 
victory, and we both grasped the problem with renewed 
determination. 



20 



CHAPTER III 



HAWAII AND THE QUEEN 

It was near to four in the afternoon as we rounded 
Diamond Head and ran along close to Waikiki Beach 




H. M. Liliuokalani of Hawaii 

where is probably the most famous surf bathing in the 
world. 

21 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 



The water is a very light green and is fringed upon 
every hand with huge white crests that break with 
thunderous roar on wandering coral shoals. 

Honolulu lay under our eyes. It is down close to 
the water, in the lap of overhanging mountains, and one 
readily sees that it is a rambling town of only some 40,000 
inhabitants with a compact little knot of business 
buildings about a quarter mile from the water. 

Now for the first time in our lives, we could see the 
mystic palm waving tall in its own warm breezes. 

These broad branches, swimming native boys who 




We approach the Wharf 

came to meet us to dive for pennies, families bathing in 
almost equally abbreviated costumes, and the presence 
on the wharf of scores of dark skinned, barefooted, na- 
tive women, clad only in what we call Mother Hub- 
bards, were about all we saw, except the white suits of 
the Americans, which were almost universally worn, 
that told us we were approaching a land different from 
our own. 

Somebody told us the best hotel was the Alexander 
Young, and soon we were driving slowly upon asphalt 
pavements in search of it. 

22 



HAWAII AXD THE QUEEN 

The streets, for the most part, we could see were 
narrow and wandering, the sidewalks insignificant. 
But we were in the poorer part. The hotel we found a 
great surprise. It must be three hundred feet long, 
recently built and four and six stories in height. In its 
comforts it was the equal of any hotel which we had 
ever seen. Swift elevators, marble floors and wainscot- 
ing, luxurious parlors, individual telephones, splendidly 
furnished rooms, everything that the best American 
hotels could furnish were here. But, above all, we 
enjoyed the servants, who were Chinamen. They were 
dressed in immaculate white, worked industi'iously, 
silently, and neatly. 

I stated our predicament to the proprietor. He 
showed concern in our search for a room that would 
receive the cool breeze, for the thermometer was just 
rising 80 degrees and soon my invalid was abed in a 
room fanned by the clear air of the highlands. This 
later moderated to 75 degrees, where the glass remained 
all night. This is about the usual July temperature, 
I note from an examination of the records for preceding 
years, and July is always the hottest month. 

In 1903 the average temperature from three ratings 
per diem, one at 6 a.m., one at 1 p.m., and a third at 
9 P.M., was 69 degrees in January, 66 degrees in Feb- 
ruary, 67 degrees in March, 71 degrees in April, 74 de- 
grees in May, 75 degrees in June, 77 degrees in July, 
77 degrees in August, 76 degrees in September, 75 
degrees in October, 73 degrees in November and 71 
degrees in December. The highest the glass regis- 
tered was 89 degrees in July and the lowest was 54 
degrees in February. 

Then I started to the Queen, our friend, whose 
town residence, Washington Place, was only a short 
two blocks away. 

For nearly ten years Liliuokalani and I had been 
close friends, and from time to time I had journeyed to 
Washington, where she had spent her winters of late, 
to advise with her upon matters that she desired 
to place in my charge, and hardly a week has flown 
23 



AROUND THE WORLD IN XINETY DAYS 

but that some word has come to us from her, whether 
in our country or in her own. Frequently she sends 
some music, a poem, a song she has been writing, a 
memento that testifies to her friendship. 

The popular idea in this country is that Liliuokalani 
is an enormously large savage, of gross, abandoned, 
immoral, immodest, dissolute, ignorant, savage, licen- 
tious, pagan character. 

It is worth while to consider how this common con- 
ception of her was stimulated and spread among us. 

In the early 90's the large majority of the sugar 
planters of Hawaii, for reasons we need not detail, 
formed a definite plan to bring about the annexation of 
the islands to us. This necessarily involved the violent 
overthrow of Her Majesty: This last they accomplished 
by means now fixed in history. Then, finding that they 
must prevent extensive sympathy for her unfortunate 
situation from arising in America, unless they would 
seriously imperil their projects, they employed the best 
weapon with which to combat that danger, and that was 
libel and slander. The fact that a Democratic ad- 
ministration succeeded a Republican one only about a 
month after the dethronement made Liliuokalani and 
her character a political issue, and the newspapers of 
the party whose administration had deposed her, opened 
their columns as always at such exigencies to whatever 
was offered that justified their side of the controversy. 

Of this remarkably favorable opportunity the 
planters took full advantage, and no hoodwinking of 
the American people for purely private ends ever suc- 
ceeded better, except, perhaps, in the single instance of 
the recent manufacturing of sentiment preferring the poor 
Nicaragua route over that of Panama for the great canal. 

of the deliberateness of the attack upon Liliuoka- 
lani I received indisputable evidence within fifty days 
after leaving Honolulu in the course of the confidences 
of a fellow passenger who, for over twenty years, had 
been one of the most prominent of these very men. 
The pendulum is swinging again and to-day, for 
business reasons, these gentlemen are cursing the 
24 



HAWAII AXD THE QUEEX 

ill-fated day when they succeeded in annexation. 

Let me illustrate. Here on my desk is a book 
published by one of the naval officers whose men com- 
posed the force of American marines, the landing of 
which resulted in the overthrow of the Queen. The 
volume purposes to be a record of "facts, which (the 
author says in the preface) I know to be true from my 
personal observation and investigation." The book is 
dedicated to the commander of the naval vessel from 
which the marines came and to the American Minister, 
who, in effect, if not in fact, directed their movements 
and their landing. 

Here are some excerpts from this work: 

"She (Liliuokalani) had, on an occasion before 
her succession, entered into a conspiracy to supplant 
her brother (Kalakaua, the late King) even at the 
expense, if necessary, of walking over his dead body." 

That constitutes her a demon as black as any in 
history. Few women have ever murdered their 
brothers, especially when the latter had raised them to a 
position second only to their own. 

"Liliuokalani . . . resembledhim(Kalakauawhom 
she followed on the throne) in superstition, selfishness, 
and savage ignorance, and, like him was a hater of 
whites and a promoter of race prejudices." 

This makes her an infidel, ungenerous, a savage and 
ignorant. 

"She was such a mistress of dissimulation as to 
convince many well-meaning people that she was a 
strict believer in the Christian religion, whereas she 
was an idolatress and worshipper of the old pagan 
superstitions of Hawaii mythology." 

Therefore she is insincere, a hypocrite, a perjurer 
and a pagan idolater. 

"She kept continually around her Kahunas (priests) 
and heathen sorcerers to counsel and assist her, and 
women of openly bad character were her constant 
personal attendants. She was addicted to the grossest 
social vices ... a ministry was appointed . . . com- 
posed of men she selected under promise, made in 



AROUKD THE WORLD JN NINETY DAYS 

advance, that they would appoint her favorite paramoui- 
to the marshalship of that kingdom." 

In that paragraph is the lowest depth to which 
woman can descend. The fact that the Queen had the 
exclusive power to appoint the marshal is important. 

"He (Kalakaua) and his sister, Liliuokalani . . . 
have constantly been the centre of a baleful, degrading 
influence, exalting immorality, drunkenness, heathenism 
and race hatred, for their own personal, selfish ends." 

Our informant attended a reception by her. This 
is how he repays her courtesy: 

"Her manner and general appearance were such as 
to convince me . . . that she was under the influence 
of some intoxicant rather than mere excitement. This 
opinion was borne out ... when a very high and dis- 
tinguished official . . . said to me, 'we have at last 
induced her to postpone her couf, and if she had not 
been full of gin we would have accomplished it long 
ago' ... at night the old court circles gathered at the 
Ex-Queen's residence, and between poi, gin, and music 
the party had a royal time." Later on he calls her a 
bloodthirsty and dissolute Queen. 

Such is the picture sent out into the world by an 
American naval officer, issued by one of our first-class 
publishing houses. 

If it be added that her waistband measures as much 
as her height, that she has never bathed, that she never 
wears anything except a smile, ear-rings and anklets, 
chews tobacco, and picks her teeth with the wrist bone 
of the white infant who is served up for her dinner each 
day, while she sits on the sand in the open air surrovinded 
by a large company of gentlemen and ladies, whose dress 
is similar in all respects to her own, the picture would 
be quite complete. 

Now for the facts as they really are. 

In these ten years of close acquaintance with her 
as friend and client, I have been many hours in her 
company, been the confidant of her business and social 
problems, and have spent many days and nights as her 
guest in her own residence. I know intimately members 

•26 




Tlie Queen discards Mourning 



HAWAII AXD THE QUE EX 

of her husband's family, which is one of the oldest and 
one of the most noted in Boston. 

In appearance she looks far less than her sixty odd 
years, especially if she is animated by any peculiar 
interest or some little excitement like that attending any 
experience out. of the regular, quiet, almost dreamy 
routine in which her life is now passed. 

In height she is five feet five inches. Her weight 
is 165 pounds. Her hands are small, her color that of 
the American Indian, while her hair is but little gray. 

Her figure is erect, her voice low and musical and, 
when interested, her countenance lights up with the 
illumination of a deep soul. . In dress she is always very 
modest and since her husband's death, now some dozen 
years ago, just after her coronation, she seldom appears 
publicly in anything but mourning. For jewelry she 
usually wears only her husband's masonic pin and one 
or two simple rings. When rheumatism assails her 
upon occasion, she walks a bit lame. 

No New England girl attended better public schools 
than Liliuokalani. The Yankee school marm has long 
taught the Honolulu children. 

The Queen is a poet. So was her brother. King 
Kalakaua. She is a highly trained musician. So was 
he. They are the only ones of the Hawaiian monarchs 
who have written books. Liliuokalani is the most 
popular composer of music that the Hawaiian people 
has ever produced, and writes and speaks English prac- 
tically as well as she does her own language. She is a 
member of widely known societies, like the Ladies' 
Pioneer Society of San Francisco, of scientific associations 
like the Polynesian Historical Society. She has col- 
lected and forever preserved the ancient traditions of her 
fast disappearing race. Two of her songs will un- 
doubtedly live as long as music. They have been sung 
now for years and grow more and more popular with 
time. Once in a while I hear an orchestra play one of 
them. It is esteemed by the Hawaiian people more 
than any other song they have ever heard, and they 
sing it at all times and at all places. It is one of the 



AROUND THE WORLD IX NINETY DAYH 



ALOHA OE 
Farewell to Thee 



Words and Music by 
HER MAJESTV 

i.:liuokala>-i of hawak 



, Moderat 


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r-i 








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tlJi 


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rLJi ' '- 


LU 


Li-U 1, 


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Proud -ly swept 



ka u - a i - na paJi 

die Wol - ke uber den Fels 

the rain by the cliffs 




nihi a ,- e - la ka na - hele 

als sie d/arch die Bail -me scTiTvebt 

it g-li - ded thro' the trees 



E ha-ha - i pa-ha i ka 
Fo!g-t mit Trau - er ihr die 

Still foU - 'wing- 




-Ph- 




^■mm— 








p— 


^mm \ 


^^ 


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Copyrig^ht. ISBi, by LILITTOKALANI 



28 



HA^VAII AXD THE QUE EX 



A - lo -ha o - - e, a - lo -ha o - - e, E ke o - na- o - na no -ho i - ka 

Ifunle-be laohl, IhiViel ge - lieb - te, Du Zau-be-rin in scbatfgvnZau^en 

Farewell to thee, farewell to, thee. Thou charming- one who dwells in sha-ded 




A - lo -ha o - - e, a - lo -ha o - - e, E ke o - na- o-na no -ho i-ka 
Nunle-be leohl, DuViel ge - lieh - ie, Du Zau-he-rin in scTiatfgen Lau-hen 
Ftirewellto thee, faireweU to thee, Thou charming- one who dwells in sha-ded 




li - po A 

•ZDok - Tiendj Um, 



-brace a ho-i a-e au, Un 


til we meet a - g'ain. 


mich, Ich st^ieideTomvondir Vm 


hOdlHch wiederssu seJen. 


-brace ere I de - part, Un 


til we meet a - gain. 




au, Un - til we meet a - ^ain. 
dir Tim baldDich TuiedeTzu seh'n. 
-part, Un - til we meet a - gain. 




29 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

songs, the melody of which sinks into the brain and 
recurs to memory again and again. It is called Aloha 
Oe (Farewell to Thee). The Queen composed both the 
words and music. 

Her published literary works are two in number — 
Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen (Lee & Shepard, 
Boston), a volume of some five hundred pages, detailing 
her life, travels, reign and overthrow — and a volume 
entitled Hawaiian Tradition of the Creation, same pub- 
lishers, containing a description of how the world was 
formed according to the Hawaiian sage Keaulunoku, 
whose version appeared in 1700. 

Besides the songs mentioned above, many others 
are to be found in the different collections of Hawaiian 
music. 

In manner she is what one imagines a Queen, 
dignified, not haughty; calm, gracious, solicitous of the 
comfort of all, studious of what will please them. 
Generous to a fault is she, forgiving, slow to anger, full 
of kindly spirit, and imbued with a deep sense of 
noblesse oblige. Her home, for these ten years, I know, 
has always contained several whom she is educating 
with her own purse. Just now there are three whom 
she brings to Washington with her each fall, where they 
have had private tutors as well as access to the best 
schools. She always calls them "the children." 

"I love to hear their young voices. They keep me 
cheerful and young," she said to me only a month ago. 
We sat in her little reception room, she playing a game 
of solitaire, the three young people singing at the piano 
with their strange, wonderfully blending voices just 
suited to the songs of their race. 

" Nothing worries me. I am happy and contented. 
I have time to think, read and reflect. I receive nobody 
and for the first time in my life can feel free to do as I 
wish. All I want is to do the best I can for the children 
and help my people in every way I may. I want them 
to be well cared for, they are so poor and helpless. I 
am providing for as many of them as I can, and shall 
continue to do so." 

30 



HAWAII AXD THE QUEEN 

I knew that. She has for years and is now allow- 
ing her lands to be occupied gratuitously by scores of 
families. 

In long conversations about her overthrow, and of 
the false friends, who, at the critical time, deceived and 
deserted her who had made them all that they were, 
never a bitter or reproachful word did she speak. 

In Washington her life is one of music, flowers, 
reading, and reflection. At eight is breakfast. Then 
the children hurry to school. The Queen writes some 
letters. Often she turns to a low table at her side 
and writes a bar of music that has suddenly lodged 
in her being; or perhaps a line of a poem upon which 
she works a little every day. We talk of business 
affairs, when it is seen that she is most methodical, 
and carries the minutest details always in memory. 
She weighs well her every word. She may play the 
piano for half an hour and then comes lunch, and the 
children. Music follows, and at my request, the children 
always sing the songs of their Queen, for she is always 
"Your Majesty" to them and to all who are admitted to 
her. If a piece is to be transposed, the one at the 
piano asks Her Majesty for advice as to the technical 
details, who answers with immediate knowledge, with- 
out even interrupting her solitaire. Often she joins the 
children in singing some favorite composition. 

When I was there last she was putting into Ger- 
man the words of one of her old songs, writing on the 
score with a pencil. 

In the afternoon she reads or writes some more. 
Then comes a nap and the dressing for dinner. This, 
like the other meals, is simple, served as typical Amer- 
ican meals, except that fruit appears to occupy a more 
prominent place than in most of our eating. No spirits 
of any kind are ever served, nor have I ever seen any in 
the house, or discovered any evidence of them. 

The evening is all music and laughter to the younger 
ones, while the Queen sits to one side, half listening, 
half thinking; the perfect picture of content and calm 
faith in the future. 

31 



AROUy^D THE WORLD IX XIXETY DAYS 

She attends the Episcopal church with regularity, 
helps materially in its support, and takes an active part 
in any of the work in which she can do good. 

Her largeness of mind, sense of humor and breadth 
of view are shown by the following incident. 

One evening we were seated in a small parlor of 
the Ebbitt House, in Washington. Her identity became 
known and many curious ill-bred people pointed her out 
one to the other. A young lady so far forgot herself 
as to stand at a nearby post and peek at Her Majesty 
whenever the latter did not appear to be looking. 
The Queen turned to me and said, "Now she can look 
for quite a while and then she will go away and say that 
she has seen 'Queen Lil';" and her eyes fairly bubbled 
with fun. 

A kinder soul I have never seen. She always re- 
minds one of the splendid New England women one 
sees in Vermont living to a great age with not a line of 
worry in the calm forehead, so deep and solid is the soul. 
I recall one specific instance of her thoughtfulness 
for the feelings of others. 

The foremost music publishing house in Boston has 
recently issued a collection of Hawaiian songs, collected 
by a native composer who gave first place to Aloha Oe. 
But he has not been so just in other instances, ascribing 
to others several songs of the Queen. 

She presented me with her own album of her songs, 
a beautiful volume bound in velvet, surmounted by her 
own crest, of her designing. This book was sent to 
Queen Victoria, but through the thieving propensities 
of a servant, did not reach her. When recovered it 
was a little worn, and was retained by the composer as 
her own, while another was manufactured for her royal 
friend who had recently entertained her at Windsor. 
In handing the book to me she told me of this and also 
of the mistakes of the compiler of the collection of songs. 
1 was indignant, thinking that this was only another 
intentional slight, but the Queen smilingly interrupted 
me to say that the matter was of no consequence, as, 
of course, the truth would eventually prevail. She had, 
32 



HAWAII AXn THE QUEEX 

however, concluded to ask one of her friends to inform 
the compiler quietly and privately of his errors, in a 
way that would not cause him any public chagrin. 

Among her friends in Honolulu are the best people 
there, and no higher class Caucasian people are any- 
where; and among them she is known as a woman of 
high ability, splendid character and spotless life. Such 
people do not associate with pagan idolaters, and 
dissolute, low, drunken women. And no members of 
that branch of the famous Lee family of Boston, to 
which the Queen's husband belonged, has ever married 
a woman of the low character described or ever enter- 
tained such people in their own homes. 

The Queen's home in her own country is one 
full of refinement, good taste and exalted feeling. All 
the proof needed is to be supplied to you as it was 
to me, by the white people there who have enjoyed its 
hospitality and by the close acquaintance of the splen- 
did woman who presides over it. 

The following throws an interesting light upon 
what I have said: 

On page 264 of Senator Hoar's "Autobiography 
of Seventy Years," occurs the Republican platform 
which he wrote in 1894. In it is the sentence: "No 
barbarous Queen beheading men in Hawaii." At the 
bottom of that page and on the top of the one succeeding 
the Senator says: 

"I ought to explain one phrase in this platform, 
which I have since much regretted. That is the phrase 
' No barbarous Queen beheading men in Hawaii. ' 
It was currently reported in the press that the Queen of 
Hawaii, Liliuokalani, was a semi-barbarous person, 
and that when Mr. Blount, Mr. Cleveland's commis- 
sioner, proposed to restore her government . . . she 
had said with great indignation, 'What, is no one to be 
beheaded ?' . . . 

"That, so far as I knew, had never been contra- 
dicted and had obtained general belief. 

"I ought not to have accepted the story without 
investigation. I learned afterward from undoubted 
33 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 



authority, that the Queen is an excellent Christian 
woman; . . . and that she expended her scanty income 
in educating and caring for the children of the persons 
who were about her court who had lost their own re- 
sources by the revolution. I have taken occasion, more 
than once, to express, in the Senate, my respect for her, 
and my regi'et for this mistake." 

Subsequent personal letters between the Senator 
and the Queen entirely removed the misunderstanding. 

Washington Place, her Honolulu mansion, is a 
beautiful home, a large, white, square building with 
very broad verandas above and below that entirely en- 





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Washington Place from Street 

circle it. From much of the street, the house can 
hardly be seen because of the dense foliage that inter- 
venes. 

As I advanced rapidly into the grounds and around 
the Queen's favorite nook, the southwest corner of the 
veranda, I heard the soft sound of guitars and a num- 
ber of musical voices joined in slow, strange, melodic 
song. I burst in upon them, half a dozen bare- 
footed young girls, seated in the shade of spreading 
trees; and the sound ceased as if I had been an 
34 




The Queen at Home 



HAWAII A ^' I) THE QUEEN 

apparition. But one of the singers knew me, and in 
wondering tones she called to the Queen "Hanai," the 
term of endearment which the children always use in 
addressing her in their own home if they are alone. 

The picture on the preceding page shows her just 
as she is to-day when in repose. 

No woman or man could have carried her problems 
and endured her experience without looking at least 
as earnest and straightforward as she in this view. 

It should be said that in no picture of her in full 




The Queen's Favorite Corner 

dress costume that I have ever seen does she appear to 
advantage. 

But her position required full dress costume, 
upon State occasions ; and as she appeared at such times 
she has been obliged to be pictured to the world. 
Having, also, that disregard that many other broad- 
minded historical personages have evinced for mere 
35 



AROUND THE WORLD IX NINETY DAYS 



dress, she has, perhaps, too often rehed upon the advice 
of others. 

Upon learning of our troubles, she immediately 
said she would call on Mrs. Chamberlin. That I had 
to decline, promising, however, if the patient's con- 
dition would permit we would come to Washington 
Place and there remain. In ten minutes I was hurrying 
from her presence with her physician. 

As we strode along, I explained the illness, and he 
at once concluded that we had to deal with appendicitis. 




The Royal Hawaiian Hotel 
At the dread word I determined to fight any idea of 
operating. I deemed such a catastrophe as scarcely 
less than suicide. 

By nine in the evening we were gratified by some 
easing of the attacks of pain, although spasms recurred 
with every five minutes. The presence of a friend 
enabled me to visit Washington Place for a short half 
hour of consultation with the Queen and then I hurried 
back. As I returned I entered the Royal Hawaiian 
Hotel, which was on my direct route, where a ball was 
36 




Beside the Main Gate 




The North Gate 



HAWAII AN^D THE QUEEX 

giveii for the passengers of our transport. This place I 
found to be distinctly Hawaiian in character. 

Many broad verandas made ideal places for 
promenading and the enjoyment of refreshments. 

On reaching the Young, by accident I was trans- 
ported to the roof, where I found a wonderful gar- 
den completely filled with tropical, growing flowers. 
Never, in Southern Europe, even, have I seen a house- 
garden to rival it, and the view of the twinkling city 
beneath, and the moonlight on the bay, was delightful. 
Surely, I should walk slower in a month if I there 
remained. 

Little rest was there for either of us that night. 
Medicine w^as administered at frequent intervals and I 
dared not trust even a nvirse. 

At periods we discussed the situation. I inves- 
tigated the swift passenger traffic from Honolulu to 
china and Japan and found that in a week or so we 
could expect a boat that would enable us to arrive in the 
East almost as soon as the slow moving "Sherman." 
Or we could relinquish our original journey and pro- 
ceed no farther. By this course we could remain in 
these waters for a month or even more after convales- 
cence began. My duty, however, said to go, if safe. 
If the "Sherman" sailed Sunday evening we could not 
continue with her. That was first to be settled — would 
she start Sunday.^ And if she did not, could we hope 
to go aboard Monday night ? Surely not, unless we had 
a better stateroom, because the hot part of the journey 
was now coming and Mrs. Chambei-lin could bear far 
less of it now than before this illness. 

Early Sunday morning I hurried to the "Sherman." 
She would not sail till Monday evening at six. That 
gave us a chance. Was a better stateroom available ? 
There was. Upon examination I saw it would not do, 
and I prepared our baggage to leave the ship. 

When the doctor came he discovered no worse 
symptoms and said that if the patient's condition re- 
mained as at first, no operation would be needed and 
he concurred that we better not attempt to proceed 
37 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 







HAWAII AXD THE QUEEN 

with the "Sherman." All day we were anxious; but 
made little, if any, appreciable progress. With the 
advent of friends from the transport, I was able to eat 
breakfast and lunch at the Queen's, upon which occasion 
I was fanned by a little black-haired, barefooted, native 
girl who stood behind my chair. The Queen prepared 
some alligator pears for my delectation, which I found 
to taste far better than they appeared. The part that 
is eaten is very light green, a color that obtains in none 
of our home fruit and naturally leads to strange thoughts. 

Soon she took me about the place. It is ideal. 
Coffee, bread-fruit, bananas, oranges, lemons, grow in 
abundance all about the house. The estate of Washing- 
ton Place must cover a lot some three hundred feet on 
the street and five hundred feet back. The main gates 
are in the centre and open into a driveway which leads 
directly to the middle of the front of the house which 
looks to the west. 

Beside the main gate on the right as one would enter, 
is a tall flagstaff from which still flies the royal flag that 
denotes the Queen's presence in the city. 

Hundreds of tropical plants surround the lower 
veranda and give it with their many colors and sweet 
perfume the air of a conservatory, while the driveway, 
except in the centre, is banked with heavy foliage of 
rare choice, for the Queen is a student of horticulture 
and the tropical world has been levied upon for her 
flowers. Except directly in front of the house, the Avhole 
property is a flower garden. 

But it is in her fernery that the Queen takes her 
heartiest delight. The buildings are at the rear of the 
estate. One is crowded with rare ferns and another 
with choice orchids. Scores of the rarest varieties are 
there, each with a history, well known to its mistress, 
many obtained only by extended search and at great 
experfse.''.* ■jaima 

At three in the afternoon, after providing safe 

company for Mrs. Chamberlin, the Queen sent for a 

covered carriage, and with her lady-in-waiting seated 

beside the driver, the Queen and I behind, we rode to 

39 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




By the Sea 




The Wayside Pool 



40 



HAWAII AND THE QUEEN 

Waikiki Beach, where she has several beach houses and, 
further inland, a large estate. On this drive, I found 
why Hawaii has been so commonly called "The Gar- 
den Spot of the World." It is one great garden of 
tropical leaves, palms and flowers. Almost every house, 
great, small, whether indicating wealth or poverty, 
was hidden in the midst of the tropical growth that sur- 
rounded it. There were trees even in the business sec- 
tion covered with millions of red flowers, white flowers. 




The Bridge 

purple, blue. There were beautiful parks with waving 
palms, pools crossed by rustic bridges, cascades of rush- 
ing, dashing streams. 

As we progressed I found that the people were 
cosmopolitan. More Japanese, Chinese, and Americans 
are to be seen than Hawaiians. But of them all, the 
children are most interesting and the most interesting 
children are the Japanese. Here they can be found just 
as in their own country. 



AROUN^D THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




From Japan 




To L. McN. & Co., Chicago, U.S.A. 
42 



HAWAII AND THE QUEEN 

Note the little Japanese girls on the lawn by the 
roadside in the heart of the city. 

The plate showing the boy riding on the board 
box convinces me that I have made a great error in 
keeping it so long without forwarding a copy to a certain 
firm of Chicago pork packers. It ought to be good for 
a ham. One of my Kentucky kodak pictures of 
General Howard, in which, accidentally, appeared the 





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with her Lady-in-W aiting and Hawaiian Secretary 

name of a prominent style of shoe has been lately the 
cause of the gift of a handsome pair of those shoes — no, 
not for me, who took the picture, but for General 
Howard. 

I discovered a typical Kanaka, or native family. 

There are hundreds similar to it in the outskirts of 

Honolulu. In a climate like that in which they live, 

the house is unimportant except when there are storms. 

43 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




The Kanaka 




The Queen at WaikiJd 
44 



HAWAII AXD THE QUE EX 

It is out of doors that the people are to be found. Here, 
as in the far East, too, the pleasure seeker wanders 
abroad at night and sleeps in the daytime and when the 
moon paints in silver the wide bay that fronts the city, 
long after midnight the happy laughter of scores of 
bathers reaches the casual ear. 

I made a picture of the Queen at her beach cottages. 

As is readily seen the beach places are like similar 
establishments at home and the furnishings of these 
owned by royalty are but little better. The Queen's in- 




Waikiki 

satiable love for flowers, however, here has full play. 
m\. fringe of cocoanut palms runs beside the street, 
from which the estate is guarded by a broad fence that is 
some seven feet high. A single Japanese guards the 
little property, and, at the Queen's suggestion he 
climbed a palm and threw down a number of cocoanuts, 
encased in their inch-thick green shells which were 
gathered in a lai'ge sack for us. From here several miles 
of the beach lay under our eyes. 

45 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




Native Girls in Surf 




An Expert 



46 



HAWAII J XD THE QUE EX 

The jolly surf-riders canae in on every wave. 

I was crazy for a swim. The heat of the water is 
always about two degrees less than the temperature of 
the air and a sea-bath is an extended experience if one's 
inclinations are all that need be consulted. 

I could not spare the time, however, and we hurried 
to the Young, where the " Sherman " quartermaster urged 
us to rejoin the ship and made so many promises that 
he fairly won me. His introduction of me as a news- 




The Cascades 

paper man a moment later, however, to a local reporter 
almost caused open warfare. 

Worse symptoms developing Sunday evening re- 
sulted in a hasty call of the doctor and it was midnight 
before we felt secure. The remainder of the night was, 
though, restful, and with the additional strength thus 
acquired Mrs. Chamberlin early began a struggle to go 
on board and continue. Believing that she would suc- 
ceed I hurried to the "Sherman" and found that the 
room we needed was placed at our disposition. I 
accepted. 

47 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




48 



HAWAII AND THE C^CEEX 

About four-thirty Mrs. Chamberlin was placed in a 
rubber-tired carriage and driven slowly to Washington 
Place. Here we had an hour with Her Majesty. 

In the reception room is a marble bust of the 
Queen's brother, King Kalakaua. The picture' on the 
table behind the Queen is that of her late husband, while 
the branching oi'naments, if I may so designate them, 
are the "Kahili," the rare feather symbols of the 
Hawaiian monarchs. I recall that the Queen said that 
one of the golden ones was made from feathers, only 
two of which grew on one bird, one under each wing. 

The piano is a grand in style. Off the music room 
is the hallway which extends through the centre of the 
house. In this there is an Angelus for the children. 

The library is across the hall from the reception 
room. 

As we arose to go, the Queen placed "leis" or ropes 
of flowers over our necks and around our head coverings 
and then accompanied us to the carriage, and remained 
standing in the centre of the main doorway till we 
reached the street. As we turned by the main gate, she 
still stood there waving her handkerchief — and so we 
passed from her life. 

As our big ship picked her tortuous way out of the 
coral harbor and turned toward the red setting sun, I 
stood by the rail, wrapt in reflection. That land was 
the land of perpetual summer, of content, of rest, of 
carelessness and indolent enjoyment of everything 
which man loves and in which he takes delight— except 
ambition and battle. If one were to sit down and write 
out what character of country he would like in Heaven, 
most of us would closely approach to a description 
of Hawaii. Here are a people who are lovers of music 
and flowers before all else. They live like improvident 
children. They toil not, neither do they spin. All 
is quiet and peace. In the middle of the day all the 
world retires to sleep. 

The drowsiness fastens upon one. The perfumes 
and the sweet sound of strange voices in saddening 
cadence with the soft guitar imprisons the will and 
49 



AROUXD THE WORLD IX XIXETY DAYS 




The Lilies 




A ow snap ii 



HAWAII AXIJ THE QUEEX 

decision vanishes. It is as if the brain were paralyzed. 
The quick, restless tread of the busy American in his 
own town becomes the slow, careless walk of the people 




The Cocoanuts 



to whom this fair land belonged. All hurrying and all 
caution vanish. Xo longer are the doors locked. Not 
even shut are thev. 

51 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN XIXETY DAYS 




The Royal Palm 
52 



HAWAII AND THE QUE EX 

From Christmas to Christmas they are swung wide 
to all the world. 

Work in such an atmosphere! Never! One can. 
One never does; except from compulsion. If any 
who read this are through with struggling against the 
world, let them go to Hawaii without further delay. 
They are wasting many precious hours by remaining 
elsewhere. 

"No land in all the world has any deep strong 




Above Honolulu 



charm for me but that one; no other land could so 
longingly and beseechingly haunt me sleeping and 
waking, through more than a lifetime, as that one has 
done. Other things leave me, but it abides; other 
things change, but it remains the same. For me its 
balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing 
in the sun; the pulsing of its surf beat is in my ear; I 
can see its garlanded craigs, its leaping cascades, its plumy 
palms, bowing by the shore ; its remote summits floating 
53 • 



AROUND THE WORLD i:S' NINETY DAYS 




The Palm 




The Song of the Lead 

54 



HAWAII AXD THE QUEEN 

like islands above the cloud rack; I can feel the spirit 
of its woodland solitude; I can hear the splash of its 
brooks; in the nostrils still lives the breath of flowers 
that perished years and years ago." 

A great prose poet wrote that, although probably 
he was never before so designated. It is a classic. 
Who wrote it .'' Find it in the song of the man who 
threw the lead that evening to see that we were not 
nosing around too close to a coral reef as we barely 
moved through the narrow channel that was to take us 
out into the wild ocean. 

Over the seaman's head stood the imperturbable 
captain on the bridge whei-e he could catch every word, 
and this is what he heard ringing out over the waters : 



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Deep-nine-teen Ai\d a Mark ThreeAnd a Half Twain And a MarkTisam. 



CHAPTER IV 



HONOLULU TO THE MIDWAYS 

Once free of Oaliu, we turned to the northwest, 
heading for the Midway Islands, 1168 miles away. 
These possessions of ours lie almost in a direct line to 
Yokohama from Honolulu. 

Our new quarters on the promenade deck offered 
much improvement over our former ones. The room 
was no larger, but had fifteen feet of deck in front 
of it. The only entrance was by a door from this 
deck. There were also two large windows and an 
adjustable electric fan from which to secure such fresh 
or salt air as was available. We were on the starboard 
side as before, but further toward the stern. The door 
of no cabin was ever closed from San Francisco to 
Manila, except for the first one or two days. 

As a rule, there was no attempt to exclude the con- 
tents of any cabin from view, except while dressing. 
Then the home-made curtains were pinned up. We 
employed a thin red shawl for this purpose. 

Upon this upper deck the washing of the decks in 
the dead hours of the night became more of a nuisance 
than before, when it was carried on over our heads. 
This nightly visitation was made by some six or eight 
bare-legged sailors who were sure to take turns gaping 
into the open windows of all our staterooms, and if one 
saw anything that was particularly interesting he shared 
his bad fortune with those of his companions with whom 
he was on good terms. 

All the way to Honolulu the wind had blown from 
the southeast, cooling the port side. If that wind con- 
tinued until Manila was reached, our new cabin would 
only be on the cool side as far as the Midways. In 
arriving at a decision as to whether we would or not 
continue on the "Sherman," this matter of the direction 
56 



HOXOLULU TO TEE MIDWAYS 

of the wind was much discussed, but never to my 
satisfaction. 

The Queen's fruit was in a sack in the ice rooms 
below. Every day some' of it was brought to us. 
AUigator pears almost created a panic at our table, 
and only one could be induced to partake. The cocoa- 
nuts were received differently. They were not ripe for 
eating, but were for drinking. There is always one eye 
of a cocoanut that is easily puncturecl- The others are 
not. Cocoanut "milk," as we call it at home, is not 
drunk in the East. It is considered as too old. In the 
young cocoanut this milk is entirely colorless and is 
called "water." It is extensively employed as a mild 
cathartic, and is much less rich than what we call 
"milk." 

When the cocoanut is ripe, the change comes. 
Before it is ripe the only edible part of the fruit is a 
colorless pulp lining, next to the water, of a thickness of 
about a sixteenth of an inch. This is glutinous in tex- 
ture, palatable and liked by the natives. 

The first day out from Honolulu the sea was 
the heaviest we had seen and there was more seasick- 
ness in which we did not join. As hoped, the wind 
was on our side, and as it was very strong the day was 
cool, although the temperature was 82 degrees. That 
day we passed Bird Island, a solitary rock. 

The following day I yielded to the " siesta "' habit 
and never shook it off till I was in the Mediterran- 
ean. If you had stepped aboard right after lunch you 
would have found many of us asleep in our steamer 
chairs, in all sorts of nooks and positions. The rest of 
this traveling city were in the staterooms; except the 
children. They were the only people aboard who 
came near drowning. Many naiTow escapes had they. 
The most perilous time for them was when, just opposite 
the chair of a sleeping male passenger, they, half a dozen 
strong, joined in whistling for a cow to get oif the track. 
This delightful diversion occurred daily, until finally 
deck sleeping was an impossibility. 

There was no barber shop aboard, but there was 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

a man chambermaid who said he was a barber, and 
appointments could be made with him for his services 
at one's cabin. 

He had a head rest that would screw onto the back 
of a camp stool, the only chair in the cabins, and as 
may be imagined the things he did to some of us can 
hardly be described in temperate language. 

Any cabin passenger could,, by signing his name 
opposite the houi; at which he desired to bathe, reserve 
the bathroom for that time each day. 





Warm 



The chief duties of Captain Taggart, the Quarter- 
master, appeared to be to play cards and promenade 
with the ladies who best liked his uniform. He was 
supposed to keep everybody good-natured and prevent 
social friction. Once in a while he seemed to be doing 
some work, bvit I may be mistaken. Oh, yes, he used 
to walk around and look into the staterooms, "inspect 
them" at 11 a.m. each day. I don't wonder. 

On the fourteenth, Thursday, the heat struck us. 
The glass mounted to 86 degrees and we began to see 



HONOLULU TO THE MIDWAYS 



what there was ahead. At times there was absohitely 
no air stirring, and our slow speed of less than a dozen 
miles per hour produced no relieving wind. Then the 
unaccustomed wondered if he could survive this and 
worse for the next weeks. For Mrs. Chamberlin the 
effect was dangerous. She almost gasped for breath. 
But a little breeze would be discovered just in time to 
prevent disaster, and then all who could would move to 
that part of the boat which it favored. In a little while 
that would die down and then would begin another 




Hot ! ! 

search for relief, and, if found, a further migration 
ensued, unless the identity, location or reality of the new 
visitor were disputed, as was often the case. Then 
each followed his own judgment, and the ship divided. 
These expeditions usually occurred half a dozen times 
a day. Collars were discarded, even by many ladies. 

The baby, of course there was "the" one, tried a 
fairly modest costume, as we ploughed nearer the sun. 

Still later she habitually appeared, in the next ten 
days, with no visible attire. 
59 



AROUND THE WORLD IX XIXETY DAYS 

Some gentlemen refused to don coats or even vests, 
and wore negligee shirts that left the chest exposed. 
It was often, from here to the Philippines, a fight for 
air. Now commenced the sleepless nights, the long, 
dark hours of restlessness. Had it not been for the 
electric fan, I doubt if Mrs. Chamberlin would have 
reached the Philippines without further serious illness. 

Many of the passengers, however, found it dan- 
gerous to employ the fan at all while they slept, so harm- 
ful was the constant draught. 

On the second day out I recommenced work. It 




Hot ! I ! 



was about the only time in my life when I had to drive 
myself to labor. But I was compelled to do it here, 
and the task became more and more irksome the further 
we penetrated the tropics. 

On the fourteenth a sailor caught a tired, gull-like 
bird which had alighted upon one of the lifeboats. 
This feathered visitor did not seem to have much fear of 
man and, after pecking at us on first attempts at pet- 
ting him, soon ceased any resistance and allowed all who 
desired to stroke his coat. Then he was released, but 
after describing a single circle he, to our surprise, re- 
60 



HONOLULU TO THE MIDWAYS 

turned to us and spent the night aboard. The officers 
assured me that as a rule one or more birds nightly 
rested their wings by sleeping aboard after their long 
journey from the nearest land. 

Soon after midday we saw an apparently helpless 
schooner lying across our path. 

That reversed, lowered flag meant trouble and much 
excitement for us. All we did was to slow down to about 
half speed and move nearer to her so that she could be 




Kidston, The Best Ever, First Officer 



hailed. But we acted with rather ill grace, it seemed 
to me, for we were plainly going to do as little as possible 
for her, and those of the officers I saw appeared angry at 
the delay that little cockleshell was causing us. What 
right had she, half a dozen strong, to hold up a leviathan 
of the deep carrying a thousand souls ? Mr. Beecher's 
words came to me as we bore toward the little stranger: 
"As ships meet at sea, a moment together, when 
61 



AROUND THE WORLD IN XmETY DAYS 

words of greeting must be spoken, and then away into 
the deep, so men meet in this world; and I think we 
should cross no man's path without hailing him, and, if 
he needs, giving him supplies." 

Through the megaphone we asked them what they 
wanted. 

"We have lost our bearings, — compass out of 
order." 

I think we were all disappointed that their story 
was not more harrowing. The captain told them about 
where they were and they started for Honolulu. 





Help! 

The fifteenth was the last day before the Midway 
Islands, and four days from Honolulu. The thermom- 
eter had registered 82°, 78°, 86° and 78° in these four 
days, and we had had nothing yet suggesting a storm 
at sea. 

Ship life was now well adjusted. We had decided 
whom we wanted to know and whom we preferred to 
avoid. No mere veneer can long hide the true wood 
on shipboard. There are too many eyes and there is 
too much contact to admit of other results. The ti'ue, 
62 



HONOLULU TO THE MIDWAYS 



staunch, reliable, even-gaited had found each other, 
and the froth was no longer to be seen. Each day the 
latter circle grew smaller, the former larger. 

Those who really did things began to unbend with 
the finding of kindred, appreciative souls, and soon one 
by one voices that could sing began to jolly the fellows 
who looked solemn and were natural comedians, until 
they permitted themselves to be known; and before we 
knew it, there was an evening of the old songs, with the 




Belongs to the 12th Inf. 

four parts well taken, accompanied by the violin — Ben 
Bolt, The Rosary, Heidelberg, Lead Kindly Light, 
Fiddle and I, Robin Hood, the famous Scotch songs. 
In this way were our evenings occupied as a rvde. 
On this last night before land. Dr. Alee, of New York 
City, who would leave us at the Midways, rounded up all 
the available- voices for a concert under his direction. 
The most of it was a joke, but an attempt so understood 
63 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

was more enjoyable than some other numbers which 
were offered as serious attempts. 

Here was where the rank crowd had to succumb 
and ask the one voice aboard please to sing again; and, 
lady, she sang and had all the revenge she desired. 



64 



CHAPTER V 



THE MIDWAYS 

Saturday morning, at seven, the sixteenth of July 
we sighted, dead ahead, a strip of low, level, white land 
that just barely arose above the horizon. The Midway 
Islands were in sight. 

Nobody aboard had ever seen these lands. All 
that we could learn was that they furnished a wayside 
station for the trans-Pacific cable, that some fifteen 
employees of the cable company had been exiled there 
for approximately a year and had nearly starved, that 
they recently had been relieved by the United States 
"Iroquois," and that a physician, some marines and a 
score or so of carpenters had been landed, which brought 




The Midways ten miles away 

the total population to seventy-five. Since the discovery 
of the Islands, no civilized visitors, we were informed, 
had ever come there but by shipwreck, except during the 
recent governmental survey, when the cable had been 
laid in 1903, when the suffering employees had been 
saved, and when, in the past sixty or ninety days, addi- 
tional building material or supplies had been left by 
several steamers. 

The United States Army Transport, "Buford," 
upon the appeal of the cable company, had, we were told, 
endeavored to leave supplies to save the famishing 



AROIWB THE WORLD IX XIXETV BAYS 

castaways durino; the preceding spring, but, owing to 
rough weather, had been unable to make a landing, 
and had boxed the provisions, mail, etc., thrown them 
overboard and steamed away into a gathering gale 
which soon arose and dashed the box to atoms and 
entirely destroyed its contents. 

Our orders were to land some provisions and Dr. 
Alee, who was under contract with the cable company to 
reside on the islands for the two ensuing years. He 
would relieve Dr. E. Storror, of San Francisco, a famous 
traveler, who was about concluding a six months' en- 
gagement of a similar nature. We were not to depart 
until our errands were accomplished. 

Sand Island, the only inhabited island of the 
group, is located in Lat.. 28 degrees 13' 15" North, Long. 
177 degrees 21' 30" West. It is 956 miles to the north- 
west of Honolulu, close to a straight line from Honolulu 
to Yokohama, and about the latitude of New Orleans, 
Shanghai and Nagasaki. It is some 700 miles south of 
San Francisco, and 350 north of Honolulu; and it is 
not far from half way between San Francisco and 
Yokohama. 

The group consists of two islands, Sand Island and 
Eastei-n Island, separated by about a mile of very shallow 
water. The two may be comprehended within a circle, 
the radius of which is only two miles. They lie inside 
of and only an eighth of a mile from a most remarkable 
coral reef over fifteen miles in length, and which forms 
almost a complete circle. The ends of this piece of coral 
continue the formation of the circle to within three miles 
of each other on the west, when they halt and leave a 
gateway of that width through which the islands niay be 
reached. This entrance, however, so far as the pur- 
poses of navigation are concerned, narrows to a width 
of about one-third of a mile, and even then affords only 
between four and five fathoms of water. The remainder 
of the three miles supplies only two or three fathoms. 
This enormous piece of coral is substantially solid except 
for an interval of about five hundred feet on the southern 
line, through which runs a narrow channel by which 
6G 



THE MIDWAYS 

small boats may enter the circle when the weather is, as 
the chart says, "fine." At no other place can this 
fifteen miles of coral be pierced. 

That part of the southern line lying to the west of 
the five hundred foot break in the coral is always sub- 
mei'ged, to the depth of some two or three feet at low 
tide. At high tide the water continuously breaks on 




Fifteen Miles of Coral 

this section of the reef. On the other hand, the re- 
mainder of the reef rises above low tide from ten to 
fifteen inches, and at such time one may walk on it from 
end to end. 

Seward Roads is the name given to the third of a 
mile wide channel, which, when inside the reef, expands 
into Welles Harbor, an anchorage basin some half-mile 
67 



AROUND THE WORLD IX NINETY DAYS 

in diameter. As its depth is only about five fathoms, 
none except small craft can take advantage of it, and 
that in but the best weather; and even then the careful, 
experienced mariner would see no safe berth in case of 
any unexpected current or other sudden happening. 

Sand Island is one mile and three-fourths long, and 
will average a width of some three-quarters of a mile. 
Its highest point is forty-three feet above the sea level, 
and it averages an elevation of less than ten feet. 

The greatest length of Eastern Land is one mile 
and a fourth; its width less than that. 

Our white ship, convoyed by hundreds of sea birds, 
continued her course toward the northwest until we were 
about opposite the five hundred foot entrance for small 
boats. Then we followed the reef until opposite 
Seward Roads, where we were to lie, adrift, perhaps 
two miles from the reef. 

Both islands lay in full sight. Sand Island was a 
level patch of white sand with here and there a small 
circular mound that appeared to be covered with green 
growth. On the northern shore were to be seen maybe 
a dozen dark red, one-story, box-like buildings, and two 
larger structures, one of them yet in the skeleton, above 
which, from a tall, white, glinting staff, floated the Stars 
and Stripes, flashing in the bright sunlight. 

Eastern Island was entirely level, with no mounds. 
It was covered with a long, rank, green grass. To the 
east of this the water was of a very light green, such as, 
we were informed, usually accompanies coral. Here 
and there, between our berth and the white sand bf the 
larger island, were rivers of similar shade. 

While we awaited the arrival of three small sail 
boats which were some half-mile distant when we 
stopped our engines, many were entertained by watch- 
ing large flsh that were estimated to measure two 
or three feet, as they crept along the bottom, through six 
or seven fathoms of water. 

Just here my arm was pulled. Tom Heinatz — 
"Buttons" — the kind, thoughtful little fellow who did 
our errands, informed me that there was a shark on a 
68 



THE MIDWAYti 

hook at the stern and "the men" wanted me to take a 
picture of it. Surely enough, there in the water, over 
the propeller and not more than a foot from the surface, 
was a struggling, madly fighting shark, held fast on a 
hook through her jaw. She was about six feet long. 
Accompanying her were two babies, not over eighteen 
inches long, who swam about their mother in evident 
fright and dismay, and when she Avas hauled clear of the 
water, they peeped up after her, as if determined to share 
her fate as far as thev could. A noose was let down and 




The Shark 

fastened over the victim's tail, and then she was hauled 
to the rail and Captain Chase asked to shoot her. Just 
as he pulled the trigger, a close-cropped, bullet-like 
head was thrust through a port-hole not six inches from 
the trajectory of the bullet. Chase's face was as pale 
as death. The shark half stopped its spasm. A second 
shot rang out, and it hung limp, never more to move. 

One of the sailboats from the island was alongside. 
Iii ten minutes, all three had lines aboard. The most 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

natty of them was white, and manned by a crew of 
marines, all dressed in white duck. Over the side 
climbed a rather small, explorer-appearing man, dressed 
in drab duck and a white helmet. Bronzed was he, 
thin and wiry, soft of speech, calm, collected, and bear- 
ing all the earmarks of a globe-trotter, who had sought 
secrets in all the hidden recesses. It was Dr. Storror. 
If one of our boats went ashore, I had been prom- 
ised passage. Our Quartermaster had been told at 




Dr. Storror comes Aboard 



Honolulu that it would not be necessary to use any of 
our boats in the landing of the new doctor and the stores 
we carried for the islands. The marines assured him, 
when they came aboard, that the three boats alongside 
could readily take to shore all we had to leave. We 
ought not to delay a great transport for the pleasure of 
two or three. 

I therefore felt that there was small chance of my 
70 



THE MIDWAYS 

setting foot on land, which was a bitter disappointment. 
In fifteen minutes, however, my view of the world was 
altered by a whisper from Kidston, the big mate, a 
splendid fellow, that he'd sink the three boats that 
had come out from the island if he loaded onto them all 
the stores. Then Captain Van Deusen, A.C., Captain 
Chase, and Surgeon Snoddy joined us, and one by one we 
clambered down the threshing, flying rope ladder on 
the starboard side, and sprawled into the tossing life- 
boat No. 1, falling over bananas, watermelons, boxes 
and trunks. The boat was hurled hither and thither; 
the cargo leaped in all directions ; the Paymaster, antici- 
pating an involuntary wetting, loosened his shoes so 
that he could remove them quickly; one of the mates, 
sitting high up on our stern, bawled some red-hot re- 
marks that fairly scorched the air — ^to the effect that 

there was no tiller aboard and when he 

was answered that no tiller could be found on the 

ship, he was as striking a picture of disgust as can 



be well imagined. He started to express his feelings 
in words that fairly fought for exit, but a glance at scores 
of women leaning over far above him warned him, and 
after a savage "Aw!" those on board heard no more. 
They only saw that he pounded the rail with huge 
clenched fist in impotent rage and turned away from the 
transport. We who were nearer heard him direct to 
the distant horizon the remainder of what he had in- 
tended to say to the sailors. 

To add to the fun, it was discovered that, owing to 
leakage, there was almost as much danger of becoming 
wet from within as from without, and the Quartermaster 
and the giant Van Deusen were soon bailing as hard as 
they could, but with little sign of progress. The former 
lost his hat, which sailed far astern amidst a gleeful 
chorus from all the kids aboard the big ship that towered 
so far above us. Our mate did some more bawling. 
Another jawed back from the transport, the marines' 
sail boat pounded into our stern, the transport whistled 
and shrieked till we were nearly deafened, a huge wave 
sloshed all over us, a watermelon flew into the Doctor's 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

lap from the other end of the boat, a hundred messages 
were shouted at us from those above, and we started. 

Before we were rowed very far, we entered the 
strangest shade of water I had ever seen. It ceased to 
look like water, as I had known it. It was of a grayish 
green, very light, lighter in shade than any before noted. 
This obtained on all sides, almost as far as one could see 
with the unaided eye. 

Accompanying the five of us who were rowed to the 
shore were a huge shark and beautiful birds. These 
latter frequently sailed, for seconds at a time, within 
reach of my hand. Then they would go further for- 
ward and glide along at the same level. These birds 
had a spread of wing that would measure probably 
three feet, were clear white on the back and upper 
feathers of the wing, and of a nile green undervest 
which shaded into a delicate sky blue at the tips of the 
wing and tail. Upon one occasion a bird of exactly 
these colorings, but of fully twice the dimensions given 
remained for perhaps a full minute above the centre of 
the boat at an elevation of less than three feet above our 
heads. 

In two hours we reached a soft, level, sandy beach. 
Here we parted. All but myself went up to the little 
bird-cage houses, while I hurried out into the interior, 
to look for albatross bones, which Dr. Storror had in- 
formed me were, with some feathers, the only curiosities 
the place could afford. 

The Japanese bird catchers had, some time since, 
descended upon the Island in the nesting season, and 
slaughtered thousands and thousands of birds which here 
annually hatched their young. These marauders stripped 
their victims of their beautiful coats and left their bones 
in piles to whiten in the sun. 

Substantially the whole of Sand Island lay before 
me. It was of pure, white sand, the glare from which 
was, under the full sun of the noon time, exceedingly 
painful to the naked eye. I could see no blade of grass 
or any sort of vegetation upon the entire land except 
where, in perhaps ten instances, in the square mile and 
72 



THE MIDWAYS 

a fourth of the island's surface there were mounds of 
sand fairly covered with a green, stunted growth 
which appeared to be a dwarf magnolia reaching to a 
height of three or four feet. These hills are plainly 
seen in some of the pictures. 

Hardly had I traversed fifty yards from the boat 
when, encircling one of these mounds, I came upon the 
blackest Chinaman I ever saw, engaged in drawing 
water. He greeted me pleasantly. I asked where the 
bones were. He pointed to the highest sand hill on the 
island, some quarter of a mile away, and said that just 
before I reached there I would find "plenty bone." As 
I walked, my feet, at each step, sunk into the sand deeper 
than the sole, and progress was difficult and tiresome. 
A distinct and unnatural downwai'd and backward pres- 
sure of each foot was needed to ensure progress. There 
could be no doubt of the composition of the island. 
Every grain of it was coral. It was almost as soft as 
talc, pure white, and the hand would readily sink six 
inches into it at any point. 

Ahead of me and on either side, perhaps two hun- 
dred yards distant, were black specks in the sand. They 
were the albatross. Some of them were resting on their 
bodies, some stood bolt upright. Could I secure a 
picture that would show them plainly ? I set myself to 
the task. Directly over my head, and on my right, and 
three feet in front of my face flew one of the green- 
breasted birds before mentioned, with white neck, red 
beak and black eyes. At no time were they moi-e than 
five or six feet away. I thought them friendly and yet, 
in my ignorance of their habits, I did not feel assured of 
their action if I were to offend them, which I might 
unwittingly do, so I discouraged too close companion- 
ship, which was often attempted by them. I feel sure 
that they would all have lighted upon me had I dared to 
allow it. But from my shoulder or my head they would 
have been within pecking distance of my eyes. 

At almost every footfall I threw up some pieces of 
coral, usually white, or some scattering and broken bones 
of small dimensions. My albatross friends, when I 
73 



AROUND THE WORLD AV NINETY DAYS 

approached within a distance of fifty feet, showed no 
evidence of disturbance. When I came nearer, those 
which were nestling in the sand arose and turned away 
as if prepared for instant flight. 

They would turn their heads to watch me as I tried 
to approach them from different directions. 

The standing ones usually increased the distance 
between us by ten or fifteen feet of toddling, awkward, 
droll walking. They were all of about the same height, 
three feet, with dark brown feathers on the upper parts 
of the body and wings, and white breasts. The neck 
was white. The body was too long to be in good 
proportion with the short legs. The birds were as un- 
gainly as a Tennessee buzzard. At my attempt to 
approach nearer, one stood quietly till I secured several 
views at twenty-five feet; but he flew with wide wings 
when I tried closer proximity. 

Satisfied, I resumed my search for the bones. No 
mound of them did I find, only three or four thigh bones, 
perhaps a foot in length, of snowy whiteness. With 
several of these in my pockets, and a large sea shell 
in either hand, I clambered up the sand mound. This 
was the one that provided the highest point on the island 
— forty-three feet above the sea. The mound proper 
must be fifteen feet above the surrounding sand. 

To the westward, perhaps two hundred yards away 
and some fifty yards from the sea, were several small 
mounds, surmounted by rude crosses and boards, 
leaning in different directions. I knew that here these 
lonely men buried their dead. A more desolate place 
one could scarcely suggest. 

As I walked near the graves I noted that they were 
probably six in number and that they were decorated 
with large sea shells and bouquets of beautiful branching 
coral. 

There was nothing but the rough crosses, the white, 
desolate sands, the great, boundless ocean and the wild 
sea birds which perch themselves upon the crosses in 
ignorance of their sad story. 

Upon retracing my way I found myself within 
74 




The Highest Point 




Only the Frozen Floioers of the Great Sea 




Albatross fifteen feet aivay 




Wonder if I better move i 



THE MIDWAYS 

fifteen feet of an albatross. In a moment I had his 
picture. Then something flashed through my mind 
that I had last seen when I was studying intermediate 
geography. It showed a man on a desert island in the 
Pacific engaged in capturing the albatross. 

Could I catch the one who stood quietly looking at 
me, only a few yards distant ? What would he do if I 
ran at him ? 

I moved a bit nearer. lie still stood. 

But when I took another step he pursued a like 
policy. 

Then I charged, loaded down as I was with sea 
shells, coral branches, bones, three or four packages of 
camera films, a camera and an overcoat. To my sur- 
prise he turned toward me, straightened back, spread 
his wings and snapped at me with his long bill. The 
sound could have been readily heard fifty feet. His 
attitude altered mine. I confess I was in doubt as to 
how to proceed. I did not know how badly he could 
injure me; recollections of broken bones inflicted by 
the blows of the wings of an angry goose came to me. 
Here was a bird twice as large, of whom I knew nothing, 
surrounded by a dozen of his kind and I was all alone, 
unarmed. While I was making my decision, the bird 
retained his belligerent attitude at a distance of not over 
two yards. I decided. The shells and coral were 
dropped; off came the camera and the rain coat; my 
albatross bones flew in various directions as did my rolls 
of films, and I reached for the writhing neck. A pinch 
from the bird's bill and a scratch from a sharp claw 
were all I secured. He made no effort to beat me with 
his wings, and I fairly pounced upon him. There was 
a mad whirr of wings, a few scratches, half a dozen bites, 
but no real damage and I held the bird by his two wings 
and neck and hurried back to town. 

All were incredulous when my story of the birds was 
related, but when, at my suggestion, the paymaster 
attempted to catch one of the black specks in the sand 
which I pointed out to him and soon had one under either 
arm, my word was reinstated. 

At the house at which I found myself reside Mr. 



AROUND THE WORLD IN mXETY DAYS 




^k4iJMn«iilk Ad 



In the Centre of the Town 




The Cable Office 

76 



THE MIDWAYS 

and Mrs. CoUey. The former was the superintendent 
of the cable station. They had emptied their larder 
for us. There were all sorts of things to eat and drink, 
but we declined to dine, on the theory that if we accepted 
we would surely eat everything they had. The things 
they gave us to drink, however, were too tempting for 
such self-denial. 

There are only the half a dozen completed build- 
ings on the island — the box cottages, say twenty by ten 
feet, one story, all painted a dark red, to which I before 
referred. In these dwell or work the fifteen officers and 
employees of the cable company. The sixty marines, 
carpenters and general helpers reside in tents or rude 
shacks made of canvas, oil cans and boxes. A number 
of buildings are now in process of construction. The 
principal ones are a cable ofiice and a residence for the 
superintendent. These will be about 25x50, two stories 
in height. Then there will be a mess room and quarters 
for the general employees, a house for the Chinese cooks 
and house servants, a water tank and a place for ship- 
wrecked mariners or other chance visitors. I was 
amused to notice that the sand around the present cable 
ofiice was paved with hundreds of carefully laid brown 
glass bottles, most of which, if not all, I am glad to state, 
were labeled "White Rock." 

To the surgeon's inquiry for feathers, a marine 
ofi^ered twenty tail feathers of the boatswain bird 
for ten dollars. These feathers were fully fifteen inches in 
length, red and white on a black quill. They were less 
than half an inch wide at the larger end where they were 
white for the first three inches, from which they tapered 
to a needle point. We compromised for half price. It 
is never necessary to kill the birds for these feathers ; a 
reach in the air or to one's shoulder or hat catches the 
bird and two slight pulls release the feathers which soon 
grow again. 

It was only at this time that I realized the beauty 
of the water. I had been so occupied that I had given 
no attention to the sea. But now that the hurry was 
past, I saw that it was the sea that would furnish the 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




Captain Taggart leaves the Watermelons 




All ready to leave 



78 



THE MIDWAYS 

principal memory of this wonderful place that the after 
years, if there were any, would bring to me. 

I stood within almost a complete circle of coral. 
The diameter of the circle was six miles. Imprisoned 
within the space was sea water so shallow and so translu- 
cent as really to offer no obstruction to a clear view of 
the coral sands beneath. The effect was the most 
wonderful sight I ever beheld or expect to see. The 
water did not seem to be water. The only thing to which 
I am yet able to compare what I saw is the appearance of 
metal melting hot in a crucible, upon whose surface are 




The Japanese Bird Catchers 

mingled shades of green and blue. The effect of being 
upon an island surrounded by a sheet of metal was per- 
fect and convincing. The color of the sheet was so 
elusive and so composed as to bafHe my descriptive 
sense. But to those familiar with the wonderful beauties 
of molten metal, I think my idea will be plain. The 
green, which was the predominant color, was many 
shades lighter than any other salt water I have ever 
viewed — and I live by the great Atlantic. 

Before seeing this water at the Midways I would 
not have believed there could be such a scene. Had I 
79 



AROUyD THE WORLD RV NINETY DAYS 

been shown an exact reproduction of it I should have 
considered that the painter had grossly exaggerated. 
But it is there and from what I can learn of coral for- 
mation elsewhere I gather that there is no parallel to it, 
for there seem to be no similar conditions which alone 
could produce such an astounding result. 

Propelled by a strong wind that blew directly on 
our backs, we sailed to the transport in less than an hour. 
The paymaster mounted the ladder with my albatross, 
and was at once the centre of a wondering throng, who, 
you may be sure, gave the bird plenty of room when he 
had been hitched by one leg to a windlass. 

A number of prolonged conversations with Dr. 
Storror disclosed much that may interest. 

Four wrecked barks are now gradually grinding to 
atoms upon the coral sands of the Midways. Nobody 
knows aught of their names, nationality, or career. 

For years, but how long is unknown, the group has 
been visited by Japanese bird catchers. Lately they 
have been forbidden a landing, and it is now illegal for 
anybody to destroy any bird on the land. Some pictures 
which I obtained from Commander Pond show what 
they looked like and what they did. 

The worst circumstances surrounding this vocation 
are the starvation of the young, which necessarily follows 
the death of their parents, upon whom they are entirely 
dependent for food; and the cruel maiming of many in 
their successful struggle to escape. 

Clouds of flies pester the Midway inhabitant. 
Their prevalence is ascribed to the visiting bird de- 
stroyers. 

The temperature never exceeds 86 degrees Fahr. 
nor descends below 58 degrees, and the nights are always 
cool. 

The glowing sand is exceedingly painful to the 
unaccustomed eye and is so persistent that only glasses 
fitted with side nets effect relief. At the end of a few 
weeks, however, the glasses may be dispensed with 
except when high winds prevail, when the flying sand 
pervades everything. 




More Bird Catchers 




Acres of Bird SJdns 




More Bird Coats 




And More of Them 



THE MIDWAYS 



The coral reef is of a dark red color, from ten to 
fifteen feet in width and very irregular in formation. 
For much of this last, erosion may be largely account- 
able. When the tide reaches the potholes in the coral it 
is often alive with many imprisoned inhabitants of the 
deep. 

Reading matter on the island is very limited, 
confined to about a dozen standard medical books and a 
number of such paper-covered books as are often carried 
in the box of a marine. A subscription of $25 per year 
has now been made to the Library in San Francisco 




Investigativg the Dog 

which will provide twenty-five books per year, of which 
each contributor may choose three in advance. 

Strange to say, at a depth of only four feet from the 
surface, pure, fresh water was found in apparently 
permanent abundance. 

The tides are very low, averaging .87 of a foot with a 
maximum record of 2 ft. 1 in. 

The famine of this last springtime was veiy severe. 

When the "Buford" failed to relieve the inhabitants, 

there remained for provisions only some rice, pickles, 

jam, and a small bit of flour. For a long time all had 

81 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

been on half rations and the outlook was not the 
brightest in the world. Their constant ability to talk 
with Guam and with San Francisco, and to learn the 
doings in the great world of which they were not, was 
their only solace. The sea was, for extended periods, 
too rough to admit of fishing, and all the edible birds 
had long since departed. In these dark days before 
the "Iroquois" succeeded in landing supplies, the only 
oil that was to be had was that furnished by the albatross, 
which has a deposit of oil in or near its stomach. If the 
bird be held up by his feet he will eject quite a teacupful 
of this oil from his bill. With this strange source of 
supply the evenings were made much shorter than they 
would otherwise have been. 

The albatross is a bird affording the deepest 
interest. When the nesting time comes, a single egg, 
of about the size of a domestic duck egg, brown spotted 
on a cream ground, is deposited one morning on the bare 
earth, perhaps at your very doorstep. In six weeks 
the female is rewarded for her faithful vigil by the arrival 
of what is probably the homeliest offspring on earth. 
For months the new bird has to rely entirely upon its 
parents for food, as there is none on the island and the 
young are too weak to fly. So far as can be learned the 
old birds are absent for periods that are sometimes three 
weeks in extent. Never does the young bird drink. 
He stands about or sits on the white sand waiting till 
his food shall come. Soon, in the far distance he sees 
two dark specks. He knows that they are propelled 
by enormous wings that often spread more than ten 
feet. Soon they alight beside him. He is inspected 
carefully by both parents, who then move from him to 
a distance of perhaps ten feet on either side, seat them- 
selves, and then apparently begin an absorbing conversa- 
tion, with curious quacks. First one discourses and 
then the other. At times they become so interested 
that both talk at once, their child standing respectfully 
between them in entire silence. This often endures for 
five minutes, when both older birds arise and begin a 
strange dance by touching their bills together, each 
82 



THE MIDWAYS 

bowing profoundly to the other at the same instant. 

Then they sachet, pirouette, reverse, and repeat 
these figures, both invariably making the same movement 
at the same time. AX certain intervals they will rise on 
their toes, puff out their breasts, elevate their bills to 
the sky, flutter their wings, and then both will emit a 
shrill whistle. 

Then they salute each other with their interlocked 
bills, bow, withdraw and repeat the previous movements. 
If a spectator stands beside them they will pay no atten- 




First Figure: Albatross Dance 

tion to his presence unless he seems too near. In that 
event they interrupt their movements long enough to 
waddle a few feet distant. There they at once resume 
their play. In these orgies the young bird takes part. 
He repeats the figures of his parents as far as he can. 
Often a score of couples may be seen similarly engaged 
at the same time. 

This curious dance ceases at the end of about 
fifteen minutes. Then the mother approaches her young 
and opens her long bill; the youngster's head almost 
83 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

disappears in his mother's throat; she regurgitates and 
the offspring is soon fed. The father then permits the 
same operation and then the parents sit down on the 
sand, one on either side of their young, and some fifteen 
feet distant from it; the younger bird seats himself and 
thus they remain until it is time for the larger birds to 
begin their next expedition, usually upon the following 
morning. 

At the time of our visit Doctor Storror estimated 
that there were then over five hundred albatross upon 
the nesting grounds in the south of Sand Island. 

The albatross has a very large brain. It appears 




Albatross Dance: Final Figure 

to bear a ratio to its skull that is fully equal to the ratio 
of the brain to the skull of the normal human. Besides 
the albatross, the tern and boatswain are prevalent and 
there are many plover and sickle-billed curlew. The 
boatswain is about the size of an ordinary pigeon in the 
States except that it has a much larger spread of wing. 
It has a long, crimson wing and a dusky gray body. 
The tern was the white bird with green breast that 
accompanied my perambulations on the island. We 
saw a slate-colored member of this family which is 
very common. 

84 



s 

^ 



fcs 




THE MIDWAYS 



From Commander Chas. F. Pond, U.S.N., who is 
often called "The Father of the Midways," as he made 
the only existing chart of them and their surroundings, 
I learned that the Islands were first discovered in 
1859, by Captain C. N. Brooks of the Hawaiian bark 
" Gambia," who formally took possession of them in the 
name of the United States. 

They were then unvisited for eight years; when 
the "Lackawanna," Captain Reynolds, made a survey 




Resting 

at the instance of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, 
which desired to make a coaling station upon Sand 
Island. As a result of this a cargo of coal was later left 
there but never taken off, as the project was abandoned 
when the true conditions were learned. Traces of the 
coal still exist. 

Three years later, in 1870, Captain Sicard, later 
Rear Admiral, made a reconnaissance in the U.S.S. 
"Saginaw." Shortly afterward she was wrecked on 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

Ocean Island, the last of the coral chain extending to 
the northwest of the Hawaiian Group for some thirteen 
hundred miles, and of which the Midways are the 
next to the last. The " Saginaw" overran her estimated 
progress and struck the coral reef of Ocean Island at 
full speed and with no previous warning. Sicard, 
aroused by the shock, came on the bridge and drawled 
out a remark that is one of the prides of the American 
Navy, "Well, we got here sooner than we expected to, 
didn't we.'" The ship was totally destroyed. 

Next, as far as known, the group was visited by the 
"General Siegel," a Honolulu ship, which was wrecked 
on Sand Island in 1886, as Commander Pond recollects. 
Some of the crew reached the shore. One of the men 
killed the Captain and the murderer was marooned 
upon Eastern Island, when the rest of the survivors 
left the island in an improvised boat, which later 
arrived in Honolulu. The story of the crime and wreck 
was told to Captain Walker, also of that city, of the bark 
"Wandering Minstrel," which about a year later 
visited the islands. 

As the strangers approached the small hut in which 
the murderer had been exiled, they saw a man moving 
from window to window as if he desired to create the 
impression that there were a number of people in the 
cabin; at the same time he displayed a firearm and his 
whole attitude was one of hostility. When he was 
assured that Captain Walker did not desire to arrest 
him and had not come to punish him in any way for his 
former crime, be became friendly. Before Captain 
Walker could leave, his vessel went to pieces on the 
coral on the northeast side of Welles Harbor, Feb. 3, 
1887. He, his wife, his son and fellow companions 
soon occupied a new hut, known ever since as Walker's 
House, on Sand Island and there the most of them re- 
mained for fourteen months, during which six died of 
scurvy, and another was killed by dynamite while 
fishing with that explosive. The graves of these 
unfortunates, together with those of two Japanese 
bird catchers, I have already mentioned. The 



THE MIDWAYS 

marooned man had evidently become demented by 
his former terrible experiences and he proved a fire- 
brand among his rescuers. One dark night, Walker's 
mate and a Chinese coolie disappeared with the only 
boat which the islands possessed, having previously 
loaded her with provisions, etc., taken from the scanty 
stores of their fellow sufferers. They landed in the 
Marshall Islands several hundred miles to the southward. 
There, instead of endeavoring to obtain relief for those 
they had left behind, the miscreants represented them- 
selves as the sole survivors of the crew of the "Wander- 
ing Minstrel." Walker, however, a man of many 
friends, was being sought by them and was soon after 
rescued. Search was instituted for those who had 
deserted and they were located. In the meantime the 
murderer had added another homicide to his record and 
was already in durance. Owing to technicalities the 
man escaped and was soon deported to Panama, where 
he disappeared. 

Mrs. Walker faithfully kept a diary of these ad- 
ventures; this book, I am informed, has been read but 
by one person outside of the Walker family and that 
person was Robert Louis Stevenson, who used it as the 
basis of "The Wreckers," which he wrote while he 
resided at Waikiki, Honolulu's wonderful sea resort. 

Commander Pond placed at my disposition his 
reports to the Navy Department of his observations at 
the Midways. He was their next known visitor. He 
arrived May 6, 1900, and in nine weeks of exceedingly 
hard work made 16,192 soundings for the remarkable 
chart possessed by the Department. 

His reports are models of modesty, exactness, 
and wealth of detail. From them I gathered the 
interesting fact that during the taking of his soundings 
he had recovered one of the anchors of the "Wandering 
Minstrel" and had carried it to Honolulu and returned 
it to Captain Walker who had lost it thirteen years 
previous and who still was, and is, at Honolulu. 

Sand Island has probably much changed in appear- 
anjce and dimension in its history, as Pond noted that, 



AROUXD THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

even in his short stay, over twenty feet of the bight at the 
northern end of the island disappeared into the water. 
Of the sand dunes he states as follows: 
"These sand dunes are covered with bushes and 
are practically a permanent feature of the topography 
of the Island. From our excavations for sand anchors 
... it is evident how these sand dunes are formed. 
A seed takes root on the level sand, and, as a bush 
sprouts, sand collects about it. The bush grows as do 
others about it and the dune is soon formed. It finally 




Edge of Sand Dune 

becomes so high that the wooded portion of the dunes is 
too much for the roots to sustain life, or they cannot get 
enough moisture. Then the bushes are smothered, die, 
and the dune is blown away. It is very easy to deter- 
mine the relative ages of the dunes, the young ones, the 
middle-aged ones and the old ones. The older ones have 
no bushes on top, only a fringe about their sides. Some 
of the larger ones are covered with bushes, which present, 
in these cases, a fresh appearance. Circles of dead stubs 
mark the location of former dunes. 



^ 







5. 




i - 

♦ 



^1? 




THE MIDWAYS 

"From conversation with Captain Walker . . . 
and his description of the dunes as they then existed, I 
would estimate their life at fifty years or more." 

Commander Pond states that there is a curious, 
small, wingless bird, exceedingly fleet of foot, upon 
Eastern Island, which he thinks was introduced from 
the Laysan Islands. He also reports that he obtained 
over a quart of oil for use in a lantern from five albatross 
which he treated in the same manner described by Dr. 
Storror. 

Dr. Storror's eyes twinkled behind his pince-nez 
when he related that on the "Fourth" there was a very 
close base-ball game on the island — the Marines against 
the world. As the game progressed, excitement in- 
creased until decisions at critical points could no longer 
be amicably received by those who suffered from them. 
The continuance of the contest finally turned upon a 
single interpretation of a point of the rules of the game. 
No copy of "the book" was on the islands and neither 
side would recede from the contention. At last it was 
decided to cable to San Francisco for an authoritative 
ruling. Pending the receipt of the reply, the game was 
suspended. In the course of an hour the decision was 
rendered, the announcement was received with acquies- 
cence, and the game completed. 

You may be now interested in pursuing the fate of 
my albatross. You know the real old salts. They are 
fast disappearing; but there were some half dozen upon 
the "Sherman." Several of these men tried to dissuade 
me from bringing the bird from the island. Van 
Deusen whispered to me that sailors would leap over- 
board rather than remain upon a ship that carried an 
albatross. But I was insistent. I was well aware of 
this superstition, but I also felt that there was not a live 
albatross in the United States, and at Manila there 
was a Botanical Garden to which there would be an 
enthusiastic welcome for him. 

We placed him in a shower bath between decks. 
He ate some raw meat and devoured some fish which 
was placed in his jaws. I was jubilant but still afraid 
89 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

of the sailors, so afraid, that at the first opportunity I 
made photographs of him. 

The second day out I took him to the stern of the 
ship to place him in a box which had just been com- 
pleted for him. This box was to be located at a point 
on the upper deck that would be visited but little. As 
the box was not quite prepared for him I fastened him 
securely to a capstan and opened a conversation with one 
of the old sailors near at hand. Four of the oldest 




My Albatross en tour 



ones on the boat were at work in my vicinity. I 
noticed that they seemed to resent the presence of the 
bird but I went forward to lunch. On my return the 
bird was gone. I asked these men if they knew any- 
thing of it. All but one replied in the negative. The 
fourth made no response. 

" One of them old shellbacks let him overboard all 
right, all right," commented Kidston. 
90 



CHAPTER VI 



A NIGHT IN GUAM 

When on July 16, Saturday, at about 2 p.m. we set 
to the southwest and started for Guam from the Mid- 
ways, I felt depressed. We were commencing a voyage 
of nine days, over 2,300 miles, doubly tedious with six- 
teen days behind, and the knowledge that each day 
would bring heat more and more unbearable. 

But the story of these nine days is short. The 
usual routine was pursued. On the first day, Sunday, 
there was a shower for half an hour, temperature 81 
degrees. That night we slept thirty-six hours; into 
Tuesday anyhow, as we crossed the line, and there 
wasn't any Monday. I don't believe it; but the geog- 
raphy says so. Figure it out if you can. I can't. 
Temperature 78 degrees, and a quarter of an hour of 
rain. 

On the twentieth the glass was at 76 degrees and 
there was another day with no air. A long swell added 
to the discomfort of many. This day we fell into a new 
custom that was maintained till the end: sandwiches 
and coffee after 10.00 p.m. They were served on deck, 
and on these nights when the moon was rounding to 
the full, and the singing naturally held later and later, 
this lunch proved a welcome way to close the evening. 

On the twenty-first there were white caps, but none 
on the twenty-second. We were awake nearly all night 
the twenty-first. 

On the twenty-third we had a grand card party, 
ostensibly to play "500," — really, though, to afford an 
opportunity to some of the rank ladies to put on as 
scanty attire as they dared. By great good luck and 
the inevitable consequence of sharp practices by an 
opponent the first prize came to me, a collection of toasts, 
styled "Hello Bill .'" 

91 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

This was the occasion when I saw snobdom at its 
worst. The way some of the rank crowd would play as 
partners to some poor plebeians and never see the latter 
at all was wonderful: but not half as wonderful as the 
manner in which some of them would cheat. 

On Sunday, the twenty-fourth, we attended Catholic 
divine service. The altar and its furnishings were im- 
provised, from whatever the ship afforded, forward upon 
the main deck, and the contrast between the rich vest- 
ments of the officiating clergy and the rough canvas that 
covered the boxes which made the altar, and the common, 
greasy, sputtering lanterns that served for candles and 
censers was notable. Yet I never before witnessed a 
ceremony that was more impressive. A glance over the 
rail at the sea, and then a thought of how frail the pro- 
tection against it, made our utter dependence upon the 
Ruler of it all most evident. The most frivolous were 
sobered. 

That night was a bad one. We sang till 11, then 
stood on the after bridge till midnight, under a full moon 
in a cloudless sky, watching the entire ship in front of 
and under our feet as it ploughed ahead. Never have 
I been, elsewhere, so impressed with the greatness of the 
ocean, the wonder of the sky and the littleness of man 
and his affairs. Between and on those decks ahead of 
us were a thousand people, each with his or her struggle, 
his or her story, his or her tragedy and skeletons, and 
yet, the whole scene would lose no more than a little 
dot if we all sank beneath the waves! Who could feel 
proud and strong in such an atmosphere .^ 

This night the air was 83 degrees, and even with 
the fan, sleep hardly visited our cabin, and many slept 
on deck, half-disrobed, in steamer chairs. From now 
this occurred nightly. 

It was the night before Guam, which was to be the 
end of the most disagreeable section of all our sea trips. 

As soon as we were on deck the next morning, 

Tuesday, the twenty-sixth day from 'Frisco, Guam was 

in sight and we ran along by its surf till about 10 o'clock, 

when we dropped anchor, a mile from the nearest shore, 

92 



A NIGHT IN GUAM 

of which I took a picture, which is typical of the island's 
appearance from the sea. 

Long before we reached our anchorage we saw a 
number of boats hurrying toward us. They proved to 
be filled with bargaining natives, cocoanuts, bananas, 
deer horns, cigars, oranges, etc., etc. These men of 
Guam were short of stature, about five feet-two, and, 
apparently of the same race as the Filipino. Their only 
clothing was a shirt open at the neck, worn outside the 
cotton trousers, and a large-brimmed, high-crowned, 
home- woven, ungainly, straw hat. Their skins were 




In the Harbor of Guam 

copper colored, and they understood enough of Spanish 
to render communication easy to those of us who had a 
smattering of it. 

The U.S.S. "Supply," which is one of the two 
official dwelling places of our naval officer who is the 
Governor of the Island, lay near us, and Dr. Storror 
and I were soon taken aboard her in Commander 
Pond's launch. 

We had brought the mail, two months overdue, to 
the "Supply," for her young officers were eager to se- 
cure the bags. 

93 • 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

You should have seen the faces of these officers 
shine with anticipation as they saw the huge sacks come 
up from our hold. 

Commander Pond was so eager to get his own letters 
that he ordered all the bags, some half dozen, to be 
brought into his cabin, where, with anxious hands, all 
were emptied on the floor in one huge pile. Any sem- 
blance of dignity or relative rank vanished in the scramble 
which ensued. 

Down on their haunches and knees they got. 
"Haven't had a word from home in over three months" 
the commanding officer ejaculated, "and I sent full 
directions to Mrs. Pond about coming out to stay the 
winter with me." 

While I was busily at work at the Commander's 
desk, I heard an exclamation of disgust from him; and 
then his sharp voice, filled with anger, snapped: 

"What's this! Here's a lot of letters I sent March 
1st. Here are several to Mrs. Pond ! What's the mean- 
ing of this Mr. A ?" addressing a junior officer. 

"I don't know, sir. Here's a whole batch of mine 
sent at the same time. It looks as if they had returned 
our letters to us by mistake — the bag we sent March 
1st." 

"Where's the tag that came on that bag.''" the 
Commander almost shouted. 

It was produced. "Whose writing is that.?" he 
asked, as he read "U.S.S. Supply, Guam." 

"William's sir. He made it up." 

"Have him put in the jug for two days, and fed on 
bread and water! I'll teach him not to be so careless 
again. Don't let this get out to the men. It'll break 
them all up." 

"It's too late, sir. They know it already. Walker 
who helped bring the bags in, left just as you spoke. He 
had just shown me what had happened when you caught 
on." 

"Then it's all out. Too bad! Too bad! Just 
think of the anxiety in scores of homes, this fool's mis- 
take has roused — homes all over the United States. 

94 



A NIGHT IX GUAM 

Too bad! It'll make the men sick for a few days!" 

That is life in the navy! And the absences, the 
years during which a father never sees his wife, his little 
ones! But how these hardy men regard these depriva- 
tions may well be indicated by Commander Pond's 
observation, in response to my questions, that he "had 
never been separated more than two years" from his 
family. 

Heavens ! An absence of six months would not be 
regarded as worth mentioning by these men. That 
isn't living at all. It must freeze the hearts at home 
as well as those on the salt seas. The comforts of home 
can never be known in those families. Such men and 
women deserve all their country can give them. 

Several hours later, the " Sherman " moved along- 
side and strapped herself to the " Supply" which we used 
as a wharf, and a sorry spectacle did we soon make of 
the immaculate appearance she had presented upon 
our arrival. 

In the early afternoon practically all the passengers 
went ashore, but my work kept us behind and it was six 
in the evening before I was free ; and we were scheduled 
to leave for the Philippines at nine — in three hours, 
and it took nearly that to go up to the town. 

I knew that the chances were a hundred to one that 
we would never again visit here; and it was a bitter 
thought that we were lying only a mile from shore and 
yet could not visit it. Nor was I any happier, I fear, 
at the reflection that everybody but us had gone, taken 
tea with the governor and had been his guest at the palace 
for several hours. It was, then, a rather glum time at 
our lonely table at the evening meal, except for "The 
Prince," and a slow growing determination to go ashore 
anyhow, if no more than to leap on the sand, run ten 
feet and then run back again to escape the disgrace 
of having visited Guam harbor but never Guam. 

He whom we dubbed "The Prince" was shedding 

his armor as, indeed, all must, on a long voyage. He 

was the typical small politican. He was tall, slender, 

narrow-shouldered, and usually maintained his right 

95 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

hand half open behind his back, suggestive, it is whis- 
pered, of the poHticians of his State. He wore a per- 
manent smile, exhibited effusive manners, and had 
arrived at that dread period which many men attain 
when they love only to talk of their own fancied exploits. 
As a result, long before Honolulu, we were all avoiding 
him. 

At Guam we found him out. My first inkling of 
the true situation was his appearance on the gang plank 
that led to the "Supply," accompanied by a small boy, 
say of seven, whom a mother, anxious to go ashore, had 
placed in his charge. In a little while I saw the states- 
man stagger up from a lower deck of the "Supply," 
holding tight to the hand of his bewildered little com- 
panion. This, and a very red face and more affected 
manners than ever, showed what had probably happened 
to our friend. He had come to see the "Supply" and 
had taken much of it with him. 

No sooner were we away from the table than I 
found three young men who sympathized with me, and, 
together, we besieged Kidston, the big first officer, 
to know the latest minute we could be back before the 
ship was to sail. 

This is where, if my experience is typical, all ship 
officers begin (perhaps "resume" is nearer the truth) 
their lying. But without protest, we had allowed 
Kidston at all our concerts to sing all the Scotch songs 
he desired, and, he was, therefore, not in a judicial 
attitude toward us conspirators. He then told us a pro- 
found secret: 

Owing to the slowness with which the Guam cargo 
was being discharged it was certain that we could not get 
away till after midnight, even if the men worked con- 
stantly; and, as they had no supper, the Captain had just 
decided that it was best to finish in the early morning. 

There was our chance. No boat was available 
except several native ones that hung around the gang- 
way searching for buyers of their cocoanuts and bananas. 

Was it safe to go ashore in the night "? Would it be 
wise to take Mrs. Chamberlin.^ How large ought our 
96 



A XIGHT IN GUAM 

party to be ? Should we cany revolvers ? Were these 
boatmen reliable ? Was the channel plain ? These 
and other important inquiries hurried to our lips. 

On these, Kidston's guess was as good as our own. 
We decided we would go if we could secure half a dozen 
strong young fellows to join us, who would stand by if 
we ran into a mess anywhere. Lieut. Fulton, of the 
Philippine Scouts, a splendid specimen of the American 
soldier, volunteered for the duty, and then I asked three 
of the young men employed in the engine department of 
the ship to go. They wei-e big fellows, hearty, bluif, 
men you would trust your wife's life with before you 
had known them half an hour, and gentlemen all; 
and more, the ti'ansport could not stir without them, so 
that, no matter how long we were delayed we could not 
be left behind. ' For similar reasons I always take the 
game warden shooting with me out in Nebraska when 
the game law is on. 

My proposition was that the rest of us would pay 
their expenses if they would go. 

You may be sure that they were eager for a lark; 
but their immediate chief refused them permission. 
Kidston, however, got them off. 

Then we bargained for a boat, or rather Fulton 
did, as he knew enough Spanish. These boats were 
about twenty feet long, of very wide beam, and steered 
by a paddle. There were five natives to every crew. 
After much haggling we closed a bargain at the rate of 
$1.00 for each passenger for the round trip, payable at 
the end of the work. 

In a minute Mrs. Chamberlin, bareheaded, and 
I were in the stern under the stout, cheroot-smoking, 
implacable, silent, half-naked native who steered, 
while the remaining five of our party occupied such spots 
as the oarsmen left. 

That ride to the shore, say for half an hour under 
the full moon of the tropics forms one of the brightest 
memories of all our travels. The channel through which 
we were soon slowly proceeding was less than thirty 
feet wide and not more than four feet deep. It had 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

recently been made fairly clear by piling up on either 
of its banks the huge pieces of coral that it formerly 
contained, so that one felt as if he were being rowed 
between two stone walls. 

The steersman controlled the crew by sharp guttural 
gruntings, and felt his responsibilities too much to smile 
at our most winsome approaches. 

No sooner were we out of the boat than the crew 
demanded pay. Orientals always do that, but never 
succeed with those who have had experience with them. 

I had a penciled note to an American who lived 
near the landing. He heard the noise of our arrival 




The Landing at Guam 

and came down, opened the note and i-ead it. So 
naturally was this done that there did not flash upon me 
till later the true significance of what I had witnessed, 
I only refer to it now to demonstrate how wonderfully 
clear was the moonlight. To inquiry for conveyances 
he shouted some gibberish at several huts near by and 
left us. 

In five minutes a curious rig came pattering down 

the street, a black bossy, with soft yielding feet, not over 

three feet high, drawing a two wheeled, springless 

vehicle, of the chaise variety, with a single seat for 

98 



A NIGHT IN GUAM 

passengers, and a smaller one behind for the driver, 
who had a six inch roll of tobacco leaf between his teeth. 
He was barefooted, and wore only the cigar, trousers, 
hat and a transparent shirt. He maintained one rein, 
the other end of which was hitched to a ring: in the calf's 



We had arrived in the tropics. There was no doubt 
of it. Mrs. Chamberlin and I mounted the seat, our 
puffing driver behind. Then a pony cart came along 




The First Shacks 

for the others and the five were soon stowed away, 
happy and hilarious. The pony was no larger than the 
bossy. He had rope tugs and wore blinders. The car- 
riage was a two-seated, covered affair, about the style 
of what we call a beach wagon. The sight of those five 
big fellows — all but one were over six feet and each 
weighed over 175 pounds, cooping themselves up in that 
little carriage, their knees up to their chins, depending 

LOFa ^^ 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

upon a little horse which would not weigh half of what they 
did was a ridiculous sight. But these things all added 
to our enjoyment, for every one of the party was a 
thorough Bohemian. We figured that the calf would 
travel slower than the other animal, so Mrs. Chamber- 
lin and I went ahead. The cigar our driver was em- 
ploying just reached beyond my ear. Where in the 
world we were going not one of us knew, and all sorts 
of visions of treachery, ambuscades and slaughter 
flashed through my mind, as it must have done in that of 
all. 

It was surprising how fast the bossy moved. She 
struck a gait that must have equalled six miles an hour 
and if the driver grunted at him hard enough, the little 
beast would sharply increase even that. This sound 
that urges additional speed is exactly the same that 
obtains in the Philippines. 

We were soon among the natives. The first shacks 
to which we came were all upon piles to avoid the damp- 
ness and made of braided fibres and roofed with 
grasses. The preceding picture shows them. 

The road to Agana, the "town," runs close beside 
the sea, almost all the way. We met scores of ambling 
natives, walking with the heavy, shuffling, springless, 
stiff -jointed gait of the barefooted in the tropics. The 
body sinks down alternately on the hips, all the upper 
muscles relaxing, as the weight is thrown on each foot in 
succession. Both sexes were about equally represented, 
of all ages; and usually they were smoking cigars or 
cigarettes — men, women, boys and girls, as they moved 
lazily along. 

The women, who were evidently the hard-working 
members of the family, were inclined to be scrawny, 
flat-breasted, possessing, with their flat heads and low 
retreating foreheads about as unattractive bodies, 
limbs, heads, and faces, as could be devised. 

They wore skirts of thin cotton, and loose waists, 

with short sleeves. The waist was open at the neck 

and entirely unattached below. The skirt usually came a 

little below the knees, but was often held up above them 

100 



A NIGHT IX GUAM 

as its mistress lolled along, chatting, spitting as she 
puffed at a black cigar or cigarette. 

The women, when a cigar or cigarette was not be- 
tween the teeth, practiced the awkward Malay habit 
which I saw all over the East, of holding the weed in the 
extended fingers, while the elbow rested against the 
body, the forearm pointed up and outward at an 
angle of about forty-five degrees. They often walked 
this way, with nothing in the hand. I doubt if we ever 
saw a Malay woman walking or sitting with the hands 
at the side as is the Caucasian use. 





Jll 






^p.:.', ;:', , ::/ 




^^S^-'-^'WSf^ ._ '"^"^ 





Halj Hidden Homes 

Poor, irregular, discolored teeth appeared to be 
practically universal. 

The Guam voice is in the middle register, but weak, 
as could only be from such flat chests. A large sonorous 
A'oice, one with timbre, I presume was never given to a 
Guamite. 

The smaller children, who fairly swarmed, were 
naked except for a short shirt. I estimated the average 
luimber of children in each family at six, about that in 
the cabins of the Kentucky and Tennessee mountains. 

Many families were bathing. Fires were smoulder- 
ing beside the houses to drive away the insects. Pigs 
101 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN XINETY DAYS 



were running wild. Family groups squatted beside the 
hard, white, smooth road. The large majority of the 
population which had lived over five years was smoking, 
irrespective of sex. Hardly anybody was in doors. 
Night is the time when they visit and go abroad. 

A caraboa, the first we had ever seen, with huge 
branching horns, dragging at snail pace a cart with solid 
wooden wheels on which, half asleep, were its owner 
and a numerous family, moved to one side to let us pass. 
All looked at us curiously, but respectfully, in every case 
and often men and boys touched or removed their hats. 




The Cross 

Large groves of cocoanut palms of huge-leaved 
banana and the nipa were on every hand; and on the 
left, now through the clear trunks of the tall palms, now 
in uninterrupted view as we crossed a bridge, the high 
white wall of the onrushing surf could be seen as it 
gathered for one final leap. With thunderous roars that 
chilled ones soul in awe it struck, for miles at a time, 
on the coral reefs that ran beside us. 

Out of some dark nook soft, barefooted steps 
would bi'ing into view a group of timid women and 
children who had deserted the road as they heard our 
102 




The Chapel 




The Beginnings of Agana 




By the Roadside. 




The Sea and f/ic Palm. 



.1 NIGHT IN GUAM 

noise, singing and shouts from one carriage to the other. 

There were Httle shrines set into the palms, and a 
chapel, all of nipa. 

Then we passed a hut all aglow with candles and 
tinsel, from which came the sound of music like an 
accordion. We concluded that a marriage was the 
cause. 

For long stretches there were only the palms, the 
bananas and the heavy ferns on either side of the road. 

So we continued, laughing, talking, singing just 
as we do in the warm summer nights at home Avhen on a 




The Heart of Agana 

long-awaited holiday, until we came to the outskirts of 
the town. Here, after visiting a wayside store without 
finding anything we desired we changed conveyances 
with two of the others, at their suggestion, for they be- 
lieved that we had the less comfortable of the two outfits, 
and so it proved. We had ridden some five miles in 
what amounted to a tipcart, and the effect on the spine 
was severe. 

As we moved into the town we noted a change in 
architecture. 

More houses were built of boards, although the nipa 
roofs were prevalent. 

,103 



AROUXD THE WORLD IX XIXETY DAYS 




Along the Plaza 




The Riding Club 

104 



^■1 NIGHT IN GUAM 

Still further in town the red-tiled roofs, that are 
so predominant in the far eastern city, began to appear, 
surmounting a frame or adobe house of modern architec- 
ture. 

We drove to the palace yard, but refrained from 
presenting ourselves, and, on attempting to driA^e across 
the parade ground, were halted and turned back by 
several native policemen, who smoked and wore no 
more than our driver, except a badge and a billy. 

A view shows the palace in the early evening, just 
as our flag was lowering at retreat. 

I procured one picture of a party of Americans just 
before their departure from the Palace upon an after- 
noon pleasure ride — the Agana Riding Club. 

After inspecting the royal quarters we started for 
the ice-plant where we had been informed we could 
secure cool water. On the way we passed a house, two 
stories, of adobe, with a red-tiled roof. 

There was a sound of many joyous voices, of music, 
of rather heavy, noisy dancing. A glance through the 
gate showed a bevy of young, white-gowned, native girls 
and young men, also in white, gathered around a punch 
bowl on a back balcony. 

"Let's see if we can't get in this!" I called and, 
nothing loath, you may know, all dismounted and en. 
masse we charged through the gate, and mounted the 
stone steps leading to the punch bowl. 

An elderly gentleman, evidently a native, clad in 
white, met us and invited us all inside. The civihzed 
character of the place showed us that here was true re- 
finement, and we proceeded more cautiously. We were 
ushered into the dance hall, on the second floor. Win- 
dows that were open doors led onto balconies on all 
sides. These were filled with ladies and babies, evidently 
the relatives of the young people who were dancing. 
The room was about twenty-five feet long by fifteen wide, 
say seven feet high, and floored in dark wood that re- 
minded me of redwood. 

The chairs were cane-seated, and of wood similar 
to that on the floor. The centre of the room was de- 
voted exclusively to dancing. Kerosene lamps fur- 



AROUND THE WORLD IX XINETY DAYS 




Agcma 




.1 NIGHT IX GUAM 

nished the lights. The music came from a Spanish 
piano, of most ancient make, played upon by a native 
youth. 

We were shown to chairs, and the dancing which 
our coming had somewhat impeded, began with re- 
freshed vigor. The two-step was the first one we saw. 
All the participants, and there must have been fifteen, 
were plainly refined. Their voices were soft and 
modulated. The young ladies all wore gowns made in 




Our Host and Family 

exact counterpart to the summer dresses we see here 
at home. Their hair was long, very black and ar- 
ranged as here. 

Before the first dance was finished, Lieut. Fulton 
whispered to us that, according to the laws of hospitality 
we would probably be asked to drink and drink we must, 
or offend the host. One of our engineers here brought 
forward a tall, strapping, rosy-cheeked fellow all in 
107 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

immaculate white trousers, white shoes and pink shirt. 

He was introduced to us as Sergeant of the United 

States Marines stationed on the Island. One of our com- 
pany, recognizing an American, leaned over and asked 
in a low tone: "Say, what sort of a joint is this, any- 
how.?" 

He replied, without changing a muscle of his face: 
"This is my father-in-law's home." 




An American Home 



His interrogator appeared satisfied to leave the 
conversation at that point. Engaging the sergeant in 
conversation, I found he was from the South and that we 
had a friend in common. He showed us his little baby 
boy, who was about the room, but we did not see his 
spouse. The white moustached gentleman who had 
108 








The Earthquake 



.. s'l^i: 



^51?^- 




Where the Quake Knocked 



.1 XIQHT IN GUAM 

met us on the stairs was his father-in-law, evidently a 
man of means — for Guam. 

Bino was the drink that soon appeared, served by 
a young gentleman, in cordial glasses. The liquor tasted 
much like gin, was colorless and was dutifully disposed 
of as offered. 

In dancing, the couples assumed positions exactly 
as here and danced as we do, except that they 
showed a disposition to pound the floor with their soles, 
in unison with the beat. This sound could be heard 
a long way from the house. 

I wanted to dance with one of the young ladies, but 
fearing that she would not understand or that I might 
unintentionally transgress some custom, did not dare to 
proceed further. 

Two young daughters of the proprietor danced a 
Spanish Fandango with what appeared to me great 
skill, and their audience applauded, clapping just as we 
do. 

In short, but for the color of the participants, the 
ruder furnishings and the more tinny music, the whole 
affair was like what we might expect to see in any gather- 
ing at home of people of similar age and relative con- 
dition. 

We bowed to the company, thanked our host, 
wished "good luck" to the marine who had married the 
rich native's daughter — quite "a raise" from $14 a 
month ! — and started for the ice-plant. There we 
found some ice-water and chatted with two Americans, 
young men who were running the machinery, and then 
decided to return, as it was now nearly midnight. 

They have earthquakes in Guam, that leave the 
land and houses like the pictures on the preceding 
page. 

The road back, was shortened by a red hot race be- 
tween the little cow and the pony. 

For a time the result was in doubt, but soon the 
latter was far in the lead. Observing some low-hanging 
cocoanuts on the sea side of the road, I stopped and an- 
nounced my determination to pick some. I felt as if I 
109 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

ought to do that if I could. The other fellows took a 
similar view, and soon we were stumbling around in 
reeds as high as one's chin, falling into puddles that 
surrounded the tree trunks; twice I fell at full length, 
sinking into a muddy hole, which, of course, could 
not be seen. The stout blades whipped my face and 
hands severely. 

None of this had appeared from our conveyances, 
and the fruit looked twice as far in the air as at first. 

While I was fighting my way in the first contest with 
tropical vegetation, I wondered about snakes, jaguars 
and all sorts of things. Such grass as we found could 
easily have concealed a whole menagerie. But we took 
the risk. When I at last found myself at the foot of a 
tree trunk that was perfectly round, fully fifteen inches 
in diameter, that had not a branch, a knot or a knob on 
it for the twenty feet up to where those green cocoanuts 
hung, I felt chicken-hearted, I shall admit — and more 
so when I tried to pull myself up and discovered that I 
had not the strength. It was nearly twenty years since 
I had climbed a tree and here was one as smooth as a 
birch, too large to allow me to get a good hold. 

I puffed away at my unusual exertions, but could 
made no headway. My companions were wading in the 
tall reeds all about me, and none had yet secured any 
fruit. 

I leaned against the tree in disgust and weariness. 
My hand fell into a nick, fully two inches deep that 
gave a splendid hold. It had been cut. What did that 
mean ? I felt for others. They were there ! Instantly 
I knew, and shouted to my companions. "The things 
are cut. You can walk right up." We could. Every 
two feet or so there was a deep nick, first on one side 
and then on the other, so that by guiding with the hands, 
we could walk right up to my cocoanuts. In less time 
than it takes to say so I was hurling down the fruit in 
bunches. In a few minutes we had several dozen, all 
we wanted. 

Several of the pictures will show such nicks. 

Upon reaching the wagons where Mrs. Chamberlin 
no 







T/ie Nicked Trees 




The Poor 




The Altar 




The Pool 



A NIGHT IN GUAM 

had remained with the drivers, we found several other 
natives awaiting our coming. One of them, seeing my 
awkward attempts at piercing a large cocoanut for its 
water raised his hat, showed a knife and in sign language 
offered to help me. I raised my hat in return and 
watched his deft work. Such an act seems typical of 
the Malays. I saw it everywhere extended to anybody 
who honestly sympathized with them, as I believe I did 
and do. They respond to kindness and true considera- 
tion as unerringly as does a baby. 

The water of these Guam cocoanuts, however, was 
not palatable, nor were the bananas. 

Although it was after midnight, about as many 
natives were abroad as when we had passed before. 

Passing a church, we all alighted, to find the door 
open and nobody in attendance but ourselves. The 
room was bare, except about the altar. A single candle 
dimly lighted the tomb-like edifice. 

Arrived at the Landing at 1 a.m., we paid the drivers 
fifty cents for each passenger and then explained that we 
wanted to visit one of their houses. We were at once 
conducted to a typical shack, and shown into one of the 
rooms which it boasted. In the other the wife and two 
children were asleep. While they were being herded up 
by the father, who proved to be a regular Yankee for 
trading, we examined everything the dim kerosene lamp 
would discover, nor did we hesitate to move it about as 
we pleased. 

There were three chairs, a table and a rude, hewn 
settee. The chairs and tables were machine-made, 
cane-seated, of the same dark wood I have before 
described. 

Evidently we had found a prosperous native ; and 
he had an American bicycle, made in Chicago, which 
rested against one of the walls. 

The only ornaments on the walls were two Japanese 
prints of landscapes, set in cheap, hand-made frames, 
about six by four inches. For one of these I paid half 
a dollar. By this time the three sleepers had appeared, 
and we found the inother a cleanly native, good natured 
111 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

and responsive to the great interest Mrs. Chamberlin dis- 
played in her. They sat down side by side, on the settee, 
and the native looked at all of her companion's attire, in 
minute detail, smiling confidently if the latter looked 
at her, but none abashed; just honestly, kindly curious, 
that is all. 

. The children were not over five or six, a boy and a 
girl. They were in short shirts that were seldom below 
the waist as they clung to their mother and snifiled with 
the head colds that seemed to be almost universal among 
the natives we saw. 

The father showed us some deer heads, one of which 
I purchased for seventy-five cents. 

I inspected the kitchen utensils and purchased 
several large spoons, the bowls of which were whittled 
from cocoanuts. The wooden handles were attached 
with bits of bark. We showed so much interest in 
everything that the mistress of the shack presented her 
lady caller with a small nipa basket, which she had 
herself made, she signed. There being nothing else that 
we wanted we arose, shook hands, the family said 
"Good-bye" and we went down the ladder to the ground. 

Upon the little wharf we found our crew asleep, 
stretched out on the hard boards under the full moon, 
lying in all sorts of positions. At one-thirty we clam- 
bered up the "Sherman's" gangway, left our fruit to be 
sent to the ice-box and separated for the night, a tired 
but still hilarious outfit. 

Before retiring I asked my companion to step 
with me around to the port side where we were lashed to 
the "Supply" to see what was going on aboard her. 
Most of her men were asleep on the decks. It was 
almost as light as day with the moon and electric lights 
still ablaze. Some slept in hammocks, some on bales of 
merchandise which we had brought, but the most of 
them lay on the bare deck. 

Suddenly we saw "the Prince" ahead of us seated 
on a camp-stool, outside his stateroom, his head bent 
forward on his breast, fast asleep, to all indications. 

I signed to my companion to walk silently so as not 
112 



A NIGHT IN GUAM 

to disturb his slumbers, of which he was surely in need, 
and we started to edge behind him. When we were 
about ten feet away he suddenly arose, moved to the rail 
and started to climb up over it. I was never more 
amazed in all my life. If Mrs. Chamberlin had not 
cried, "Stop him!" I doubt if I should have been in time, 
for I didn't particularly like him, and he was over- 
balanced when I got him by the nape of his neck and 
drew him back. In three seconds he would have been 
in the water between the ships. 

How strongly the mind works! He was headed 
for the "supply." 

A vigorous shaking was administered, and advice 
given that he should go to his bunk. But only maudlin 
responses could be secured, so, while I stood guard, my 
better-half went for the watchman who soon came and 
compelled the inebriated man to go to bed. 

This was the last adventure, and at nine-thirty the 
next morning we drew away from the "Supply" and 
started on the last lap of our long voyage, five days to 
Manila, during the last two of which we would be close 
to land — Luzon. 



113 



CHAPTER VII 



NEARING THE END 



From Guam to Manila is 1400 miles. But as we 
set sail for our last port, that Wednesday morning, 
July 27th, we were comparatively light-hearted, for 
on the next Sunday morning we would be in sight of the 
Philippines. 

For those of us who had been ashore the preceding 
night the remainder of the journey was even shorter, 
for we did not recover from the experience until 
the second day. The heat was now at its height. The 
first noon after leaving Guam, the glass climbed to 
89°, the next day it was 87°, the next 86°, and the next, 
Saturday, 87°. 

On these nights more slept on deck than at any 
other period and still the fact was that this was a record 
breaking voyage as to heat; that is, it was wonderfully 
cool. The officers of the ship who had luade the 
journey a number of times united in saying that they 
recollected no such low temperature; that, as a rule, 
everybody slept on the decks after leaving Honolulu. 
Even in the worst heat, I doubt if over a score of those 
accommodated on the promenade deck ever passed the 
night outside their rooms. Down on the main deck, 
however, it was very different. Scores lay stretched out 
on the hard boards. A number of ladies lay on the 
hatchway. Practically everybody between decks aban- 
doned their rooms at this time, both day and night. 

Nothing else was possible. An hour spent down 
two decks searching for some photographs so exhausted- 
me that I did not recover that day. At the slightest 
exertion in the middle of the day one profusely perspired. 
The Sewing Circle met, however, as usual, as did the 
"500" crowd, and the crocheting class. 

Now the food was becoming soft and flabby. 
114 



XEARIXG THE EXD 



Many of us depended upon the soups and the nightly 
supply of sandwiches and coffee. 

One of the passengers, a German, was in the 
Philippine Constabulary. He was very fond of chess, 
when he won, and was very excitable. When he had 
decided upon the decisive move in a game that was 
attracting much attention, he was so elated at the glimpse 
of his triumph that he lost his head and picked his Queen 
off the board, threw it overboard and put his lighted 




The Setving Circle Meets 

cigar stub in its place in the game. You may well 
imagine there was a shout of glee from many a strong 
throat, and the poor German was so mortified that he 
abandoned the contest and thereafter steadfastly refused 
to play, while his sensitive nature was made miserable 
by his tormenting companions, even to" the last hour of 
the voyage. 

In these final hours the love afl^airs, the scandals, 
the resentments aroused at cai'ds, the social strivings 

115 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

were merged in a feeling of exhilaration at the realiza- 
tion that we were soon to be released. 

Up from below came the trunks of the favorites. 
These, in the cooler air of the setting sun, repacked the 
various gowns in which they had tried to outshine some 
other rank one. 

Those who did not have favor in high places were 
obliged to descend in the heat of the day, between decks, 
where they reeled and sweltered in a hundred degrees 
of heat. Packing trunks under such circumstances was 
not an enjoyment. 

Sailors carry their belongings in huge cylindrical 
canvas bags, that, stood on end, are about four feet high. 
They may be fastened with a rope that runs through 
brass eyelets set around the top. They furnish the best 
carry-all I have ever seen and we gladly accepted the first 
officer's proffer of his, and our accumulations of the past 
month were sUch that it was filled to the bursting point. 

All day this Sunday we were in sight of the Philip- 
pines. The island of Samar, covered with green hills, 
is the first one seen, to the southward. Then Bulusan 
volcano, on Luzon, at the entrance to the San Bernar- 
dino Straits, through which we were to run for thirty 
hours, loomed up, conical and regular, surrounded by a 
column of smoke that rose skyward into the gathering 
clouds of the sunset. 

At five o'clock we reached the Straits, finding them 
about five miles wide at their mouth. At no time in the 
rest of the journey were we more than that from land. 
Just as we entered these gaping jaws of Samar and 
Luzon, the sun began to set behind Bulusan, red- 
dening the edges of the banks of clouds and smoke that 
lay in back of and over its summit. It was the most 
gorgeous sky picture I have ever beheld. Its beauty, 
its wonderful marvellous coloring made tears appear in 
some eyes. It was thrilling, ennobling, awe-inspiring. 

All Monday we moved along in the straits, often 

within a mile of the shore, much of which was rugged 

but laden with bright green foliage. Hour after hour 

the beautiful panorama unfolded. Little towns nestled 

116 



NEARING THE END 

by the water. Often a vessel passed, some inter-island 
boat. Mindoro, with mountains over eight thousand 
feet in elevation, was close on the port side. 

In the afternoon we could see the town and dome 
of the church of Batangas, and far inland could be made 
out the summit of Taal volcano which from its home in 
the middle of the lake of the same name, suddenly 
sent up a cylindrical column of light smoke. At four- 
thirty we passed Cape Santiago, where the telegraph 
lines begin, and we knew that Manila was aware 
that we were only seventy miles away as we entered 
Manila Bay. That message was awaited by many an 
anxious one in Manila and in America. Just at dusk 
the foregoing chapter on the Midways was finished, and 
I laid aside my work for the first time since San Francisco. 
It had been a hard month in which to do hard work. 

Now we were approaching historic ground. Soon 
rugged old Corregidor, by which Dewey crept so cau- 
tiously, lay ofl' to port and, when the evening blackness 
shut down, and we saw only little glimering lights here 
and there it was with something of enthusiasm that I 
duplicated the particulars of the approach our great 
naval hero had made to these very shores ; aye, in this 
very track in which we were moving. 

When we dropped anchor off the Luneta it was in 
half a gale and within an hour of midnight. Besides 
the long rows of lights on the water's edge and here and 
there a stray house gleam, little could be discovered of 
the city before which we swung, and, except for the 
various colored signals from a score of waiting shipping, 
the scene was dismal enough in the rain. Nobody 
could land till the doctor had seen us at seven the next 
morning and nobody could, before that time, board us. 
What this delay at this last moment of our journey 
meant to the wives, sweethearts, mothers and children 
we brought with us, who had come to join the loved 
ones from whom, in some cases, they had been separated 
for years, may be more readily inquired than desci'ibed. 
There were children with us who had never been seen 
by their fathers. There were wives who had not seen 
117 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

their soldier husbands for three years. If one were not 
made of iron he could not see these anxious, waiting 
faces stare off toward Manila with the tears gathering in 
their eyes, without a sob in his own throat. 

We had an angel with us. She was a delicate little 
body that disease had bruised long years ago, and im- 
posed a crutch and everlasting pain. The crosses these 
had made her to bear had made her so patient, so calm, 
so sympathetic, that her soul was in her face, in her 
frank, kindly smile. 

After many a year of siege she had yielded her 
life to a big, strong, generous, high-minded officer of our 
army. She had tried to follow her husband as long as 
she could, but the little crutch detained her by the way, 
and illness had, two years before, compelled her return 
from the Philippines to the States. Now, stronger, she 
had come back to him. Can you imagine what was in 
her heart as she leaned on the rail, when ceased the 
monotonous throb of the engines and the huge anchor 
splashed into the mud, and she knew that her husband 
was in that city whose lights were only a quarter mile 
away, and she could not grasp his hand till the next 
morning ? Ki tiines- it seemed as if her little arms tried 
to stretch out over the black waters to him who must be 
there among those lights. 

Soon, across the bay tossed a red light and around 
the stern bobbed in the gale, the rain and the huge seas, 
a little launch that halted some fifty feet away, for it 
was dangerous to come nearer, we were rolling so. 

The little crutch flew to where the launch was 
nearest. "There he is! There he is!" she cried. 
Then out called a strong voice throughi a long jsaega- 

phone. "Is Mrs. H there .'^" That was she. I 

lifted her up on a chair that he might see her. "Yes! 
Yes! Here I am! Here I am!" she could only say 
through the choking tears. I doubt if he could hear her 
small voice, above the whistling gale, but he could 
surely see the little white figure on the crutch, franti- 
tically waving a bit of lace. 

There was another voice from the cockle-shell. 

118 



NEARINO THE END 

A young mother, holding up a manly little son whom his 
father had seen only as a baby, three years before, 
pushed to the rail. 

From these scenes my interest centered upon lights 
that shone, close to the water, some miles to starboard. 
That was Cavite, and between where we lay and those 
Hghts had been fought out one of the few battles that 
largely changed all the maps then in existence. 



119 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE FILIPINOS 

You may be sure that everybody on the "Sherman" 
was early awake the next moi-ning. 

We were in the Orient. Paddhng all about us in 
dug-outs with outriggers, were lightly clad Chinese, 
Japanese and Filipinos, squatting low down, surmounted 
often with the huge, circular, bamboo, peaked hats 
that you would expect to find there. There was a ses- 
sion with the custom officials that consumed half an 
hour and sorely tried the patience. There were hurried 
good-byes, tips to the servants, struggles by a number 
of us to secure the services of a poor deck boy, all at one 
time. Everybody was excited, especially when the boats 
began to come from Manila and reunite long separated 
families. 

By good luck and as a return for courtesies we had 
extended to a soldier's mother who was traveling alone, 
we were first to leave for shore. A smart little Custom 
House launch landed us near the Magellan statue, an 
indifferent memorial to that great navigator, the first 
Caucasian to visit these lands. Two steel-tired car- 
romatas (local carriages) low conveyances, each drawn 
by a pony that weighed say, four hundred pounds, were 
found by our escort and soon the ladies, with the bag- 
gage, were started for the Hotel Bay View — at any rate 
the driver was so directed, — where we had been promised 
board and room for $21 per week, each. One of the 
ladies knew a little Tagalog (pronounced Ta-gal'-og) 
and it was upon her that we depended to govern the 
little brown brother who acted as their driver. Either 
of them could easily have spanked him, but I must 
admit that as I saw them move away I felt many mis- 
givings. 

I shall attempt no detailed description of the capi- 
120 



THE FILIPINOS 

tal of the Philippines, further than to say that it is a 
rambhng town with twenty-five-foot streets in the 
busiest centres, paved often with rough cobblestones. 

The architecture of the most expensive buildings' 
is all of the Spanish school, low-studded, of only two or 
three stories, with many little balconies. It was a com- 
mon thing to see a room all open except at the corners 
and up to the height of the waist. Split bamboo curtains 
were all that were used to close these huge open spaces, 
so that, when seated in one of these rooms it was like 
being on a covered piazza. 

Many people crowd the main thoroughfares. All 
Caucasians and all others well-to-do wear white duck 
suits. In the Orient these cost about $1.50 apiece, and 
one orders them by the half-dozen or dozen. Not in- 
frequently white silk ones are seen. 

The city is thoroughly cosmopolitan, Chinese, 
naked to the waist, Japanese, Indians with huge red 
turbans, Englishmen in white helmets, Filipinos, 
Spaniards — scowling at us — dress and undress — all 
degrees of all races jostle each other with no thought of 
how strange is the scene to the unaccustomed visitor. 
Weak-backed, fallen-chested, stoop-shouldered, native 
policemen were often passed, presenting a sorry con- 
trast to some of the American police who are placed at 
the more important locations. These American Manila 
policemen are splendid fellows, all ex-soldiers, none 
others being eligible. Their uniform, as is that of the 
natives, is substantially the present olive drab of our 
own army. 

Snail-like caraboas, dragging low carts on which 
half recline sleepy drivers, met one often. We were in 
the country of bare feet, or, at most, the heeless slipper — 
but stockings — never. Everything and everybody 
moved slowly in the heat which began to be strongly 
felt by ten o'clock. If extra exertion were made, the 
perspiration appeared in little beads. We soon found 
that if you desire comfort you must not move in the East; 
and that if you do not move, you will soon be ill. 

No alert American should be expected to keep his 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

temper in transacting business in Manila. Nobody 
knows anything beyond his own walls. For example, 
no steamship company could give me any information 
at all about the sailings of others, and I soon saw that 
I could not decide under an entire day the steamer 
question — a problem which in New York or Boston, 
could have been easily decided in fifteen minutes, so we 
rode down the Malecon Drive, the only attractive road 
in Manila, toward the famous Luneta or square where the 
band played nightly. This Malecon Drive runs parallel 
with the sea shore and but a few yards from it. 




Malecon Drive 

The Luneta is an oblong grassy common, say three 
hundred yards long and half as wide, with the sea break- 
ing in on it from the southward. The only structure 
of any kind within this park was the bandstand in the 
centre. 

Across the Luneta we rode and a hundred yards 
beyond alighted at a three-story building against which 
and under which the sea broke, for the edifice was half 
on pilings. Rooms had been secux'ed by the women of 
our party and we were at once initiated into the best 
122 



THE FILIPINOS 

hotel Manila affords. I think I require as little as any- 
body, but I defy anybody to live in a Manila hotel and 
be content. The prices for everything are awe-inspiring, 
and what you secure for your money is the least, I 
believe, that the world affords. The table — Heavens ! 
What food we did have! To begin, the flies were in 
swarms. I doubt if there was ever a moment during a 
repast which we tried to eat when there were not over a 
hundred flies on our table. They covered the very 
bread you were hastily transferring to your lips. 

No meat grown in the islands is fit for an 
American table, so all is brought from Australia or from 
America. But the total absence of milk is what upsets 
the usual iVmerican appetites. Just think of it — 
there's not a cow in the Philippine Islands! The only 
milk obtainable is that of the tin can! Imagine the ice- 
cream! Often it is impossible to secure enough pala- 
table food to make a solid meal. Rice and curry, 
usually chicken, is the staple food, and we were told that 
if we would confine ourselves to that for so long as we 
were in the East we would have no trouble. The only 
fruit available was the banana, a small, inferior article 
compared with what we have here at home. The fre- 
quent sight of lizards of a length of some four or five 
inches, crawling up the wall beside one did not tend to 
accentuate one's pleasure. 

Our room was large, on the third floor. There 
was no elevator. The beds were surrounded with 
mosquito netting hung from a canopy above. There were 
no mattresses, only a cotton-batting pad about half 
an inch thick thrown onto a cane laced bottom. On 
this pad was a nipa (straw) mat, and on this was placed 
the under sheet. A space as large as three ordinary 
windows was open to the outer air, protected, if desired 
by unrolling the bamboo curtain that hung from the 
ceiling. In case of violent storm, too, windows of glass 
could be moved from either side. There were some five 
or six rooms only on each fioor. As there were, how- 
ever, a row of similar houses adjoining which were used 
as -annexes, the proprietor could accommodate, say, a 
123 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

hundred. The only thing resembling a bath was a 
single shower for either sex, and a large tin pan for a tub. 

If the bell boy (Filipino) were to be called, that was 
done by stepping into the hall and clapping the hands. 
The laundrynian was a Chinese outsider, who always 
overcharged and then lied about it. Filipino boys were 
the chambei-maids and the dining room servants were 
Chinamen, all in white, with long black cues hanging to 
their knees. 

After lunch my army companion called up the 
Army and Navy Club for a rubber tired carromata. If 
one is registered on the books of that institution, the 
best conveyances in town may be secured at fifty cents 
per hour, thirty-three and a third per cent, less in price 
than the public charges for poorer service. If one be so 
unfortunate as to be denied this advantage he must 
depend upon the public conveniences. For these the 
advertising pamphlet of the Bay View says: "The 
drivers are lazy, their vehicles usually very dilapidated, 
and the ponies slow and balky." — and the description 
is mild — much milder than any I ever heard. 

A number of these Army and Navy outfits include 
American horses, and the way the native boys drive 
them is dangerous for the driver and for the passenger if 
the latter be anything of a horseman. The former is in 
peril of a runaway; the latter in danger of iBurdering 
the driver. I never saw in the East a native who knew 
how to drive a horse. The means employed to ensure 
progress are usually a jerk at the reins, a cut with the 
whip, and the grunt described as a feature of our Guam 
experience. These performances occur about every 
minute of the ride and the American horses are all 
ready to bolt most of the time, while the native ponies 
refuse to move except at intervals. Always a balky horse 
is in sight. 

Next we drove to the Custom House where we had a 
trunk and my soldier's mother had three. I stated my 
name in answer to an inquiry for it, and was astonished 
at being notified that my baggage was ordered to be 
passed without examination. I had arrived. Some- 
124 



THE FILIPINOS 



body in the United States had awakened. I im- 
mediately passed all of the trunks of my friend's mother 
as part of my baggage, which almost caused my com- 
panion to swoon and the inspector to smile, and we soon 
saw our belongings on a cart headed for the Bay View. 
The rest of the day I spent in visiting the steamship 
offices. 

All I had determined was that we could not safely 
go to Japan if I were to keep my word and be in New 
York Oct. 1. It was just at this time that the Russians 




One hundred feet from best hotel in Manila 

and Japanese were busily engaged in ransacking such ves- 
sels as they chose for contraband, and all sailing dates 
to and from Japan were cancelled in Manila. No com- 
pany would promise that it would ever get us back, if 
we succeeded in reaching the Mikado's property. 
Under such circumstanes we had no choice; but the 
consequent disappointment was poignant. 

In the evening Mrs. C. and I walked out alone to 
see the neighborhood. AVe were surrounded by native 
125 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

shacks, one of which was on a corner diagonal from our 
hotel, and not over fifty yards away. 

There were also, in this part of the city, the more 
modern residences of Americans. Many of them were 
guarded from the street by stone walls fully six feet in 
height. As a rule the front yard was a flower garden. 
Each native hut showed a lighted lantern in front of it, 
a universal regulation which our rule demands. 

The streets were deserted, but there was much to 
see, as the inmates of the houses, as a rule, did not pull 
down their bamboo curtains. 

As we were nearing the hotel we heard a soft voice 
singing and by a glance through an open window we 
saw a native mother rocking her baby to sleep in a rude, 
hand-made cradle, beside which she sat, slowly waving 
the insects from the little dark face that lay against the 
white pillow. Except for the color of the participants, 
the strangeness of the song which, while weird, was yet 
plainly a lullaby, the scene was that of New England. 

At five in the evening all Manila rides to the Luneta 
that can. The rest walk, and when the band of one of 
our regiments, or of the Constabulary or Scouts, begins 
to play at five-thirty hundreds of carromatas stand 
about the plaza, and here one is sure to see all the friends 
he has in the city. The concert lasts about an hour; 
and if you lie on the grass, or are not very careful about 
the settee upon which you may station yourself, you will 
be overrun with red ants who will fix your attention 
far more than the band or the throng; and I speak from 
sad experience. In the various regimental bands we 
saw, nearly half the muscians must have been Filipinos 
and they seemed to be very earnest and efficient, evi- 
dently trying their best all the while. 

At dinner the Americans, both sexes, affect full 
dress, and the spectacle of many a poor government 
employee who never owned a dress suit at home, now, 
in far away Luzon, copying the imagined rules of high 
society, high handshakes and all, is not uncommon. 
Here he rides in a carromata. At home he never rode 
in a carriage, unless on the top of one on Fifth Avenue. 
126 



THE FILIPIXOS 

Women of poor education, suddenly elevated into this 
high society, appear in pink ribbons, bows and sashes 
that, on the stage at home, would bring a screech of 
amusement. As long as the arms and neck are bared, 
these poor people imagine they are doing something. 

Army ojB&cers in white uniforms, with their wives, 
bareheaded and decollete, without wraps, are often seen 
in expensive barouches looking as if they had recently 
inherited all the Standard Oil money. They look so 
much like rich people that they recalled a remark made 
by General Howard to a young man who was very 
fashionably dressed. We were all three in an elevated 
train in New York, when the General, pointing to the 
gentleman said, "I gave that boy's father his start in 
life." The young man turned and introducing himself, 
inquired if my companion were not General Howard. 
"O, yes," the one-armed hero replied, "I remember 
you perfectly. But you looked so much like a rich 
man that I didn't dare speak to you !" 

The first night at Manila showed to us what was in 
the future. One could sleep, but not rest. In the 
morning there is no feeling of returned vitality. Energy 
is at the same ebb tide that it was the night before. 
The bed clothing, only a sheet, is damp. The leather 
shoes you left beside your door last night to be cleaned 
are covered with a green mould before "boots" attacks 
them. When you rise and begin to dress you find that 
your garments are damp with a clammy chill that is far 
from agreeable. Photograph films must be guarded 
from the dampness with the greatest care, for, if ex- 
posed they will quickly spoil. 

At about seven on that first morning I arose and 
looked from the window. Directly beneath were a 
native man and woman, seated on their heels, in Oriental 
style, upon a rock by the sea, gazing silently out over 
its depths, as if wrapt in contemplation of what lay be- 
yond its great distances. For a quarter of an hour they 
thus perched, without a word or movement. Two or 
three native boys rode horses into the serf, a mother 
pushed into the waves, accompanied by two little naked 
127 



AROUND THE WORLD IX NINETY DAYS 

children, while across the street another mother was 
pouring water in tin canfuls over the naked form of a 
boy of probably seven or eight. In the annex, fifty feet 
away, an American, a government clerk, was playing with 
two monkeys which were chained to his window seat. 
A Chinaman hobbled up to a hydrant, filled two pails 
brimming full of water and then trotted away without 
spilling a drop, with his heavy load dangling, one pail 
from either end of the flexible stick that rested on his 
shoulder behind his neck. The amount of bulk and 
weight a Chinaman can carry by this arrangement is 
marvellous. It is a common thing to see two of these 
men trotting along the main streets with a modern 
upright piano swung between them. 

The second day was strictly devoted to solving the 
home-going puzzle. The differences between the prices 
of various routes to America via Suez were remarkable, 
varying forty 'per cent. But at last I chose the North 
German Lloyd line, whose steamer would leave Hong 
Kong on the seventeenth instant, which would land us at 
Naples on the thirteenth of September. This neces- 
sitated our departure for China on the thirteenth, the 
second Saturday, ten days later. From Naples we could 
proceed slowly across Eui'ope to Bremen where on the 
twentieth we could catch the Kaiser Wilhelm II. That 
would permit us to reach New York on the twenty-seventh 
of September. The fare to Southampton was $340. To 
New York it was only $320, so I have calculated that 
our vogage on the Kaiser Wilhelm II, the most expen- 
sive steamer afloat, cost us $20 less than nothing. 

You will understand why this is when I say that 
there are half a dozen lines running from Asia to Eng- 
land, only one of which extends to America. 

This day we were introduced to the rainy season. 
" Sufiiciency ! " Sam Bernard would surely remark. 
Out of a clear sky the water tumbles down in buckets. 
Everything is flooded. Some streets become lakes. 
Then of a sudden the sun appears. From May 1 to 
Oct. 1 this is the average climate, each year. During 

128 



THE FILIPIXOS 

this period, the rain fall averages two-thirds of an inch 
jier diem. 

Upon inquiring at the banks again for funds from 
home, I had full opportunity to see how a silver basis 
money system would be utterly impossible in a modern 
country. The counters where deposits were received 
were about four feet across, waist high. Before them 
on the floor, were nipa bags, about a foot in diameter 
and half as tall, piled up one on the other sometimes as 
high as the counter. The depositor lifted up the top 
bag, unwound the string that tied it at the neck, reversed 
it and emptied a great flood of silver dollars on the 
counter. These were immediately seized by a teller 
who piled them up in uniform cylinders before him. 
Meantime the depositor had let fall another shower of 
silver, and so the work went on. I saw, to my wonder- 
ment, a deposit made from scores of these bags which 
were brought into the bank by half a dozen nearly naked 
Chinese coolies, like so nrany sacks of meal. I was 
obliged to remain half an hour and but a small fraction 
of the bags had then been opened. The head cashier 
told me that it was a common thing for three or even four 
hours to be employed in completing a large deposit. In 
the particular instance Avliich I was watching he esti- 
mated that the work would consume three hours. The 
amount was $60,000. In the meantime a half-dozen 
other depositors were emptying their sacks on the coun- 
ter with a crash. Attendants were handing out other 
bags to pay cheques. As the new owner received the 
bags he deposited them on the floor, one on top of the 
others, and then loaded them onto the heads or shoulders 
of his servants and out they went, through the crowded 
streets. 

I drew the equivalent of $1,000 of our money, and 
I was obliged to receive six hundred bills, as the dol- 
lar is the common denomination issued by the local 
government , and the bank had but a limited supply of 
Spanish notes. The latter were larger than the former. 
Now count out six hundred bills and see what a pre- 
dicament I was in. I had no one pocket that would 
129 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

include them and I stuffed them, hterally in handfuls, 
all about my person after I had spent fifteen perspiring 
minutes in counting and reckoning them. 

I felt outraged and uncomfortable, with these great 
wads of paper filling every pocket; and I felt no better 
when, arrived at the steamer office, I tried to count out 
$640 to pay our passages to New York. It took half an 
hour by the clock to accomplish the task. Every bill 
was worth only half of its face, and this confused the 
count; the various piles of notes became intermingled; 
in emptying a pocket, some of the bills escaped to the 
floor in the most inaccessible places, a la collar-button; 
the clerk and I disagreed on the contents of a particular 
pile, — all this in a temperature of about 95° Fahr! — 
and then I had some $400 to take to the hotel. I simply 
couldn't remain in town with such rolls in my pockets , 
and I had to return to the Bay View to get rid of that 
money. For the first time in my existence I was 
tempted to throw away three or four pockets full of 
money just to be free of it; for once money was a 
distinct nuisance. 

No business can be done in a modern sense, by 
any such system -as that. 

Everybody smoked, women, children and all — 
invariably cigarettes. I also noted that a native covers 
the head with the first object obtainable when coming 
into the sunshine. When rain falls it is a common sight 
to see natives strolling along protected by huge banana 
leaves resting on their shoulders. A\\ that is required is to 
seize a leaf, break a hole for the head to pass through, 
and the Filipino is about as well guarded against rain as 
one of our soldiers when encased in his rubber poncho. 

In Manila one frequently hears many shoutings 
upon passing certain buildings. This disturbance is 
created by the children in the Spanish schools, who shout 
their lessons aloud when committing them to memory. 
The result of a hundred lusty young school children at 
once loudly voicing their lessons is something that can- 
not fail to attract Americans. 

In a critical survey of the Americans I saw, I found 
130 



THE FILIPIXOS 

that many of them had become hstless and sallow. 
Officials explained to me that all of our race must leave 
the Islands every three years for a period of at least three 
months. Accordingly all government employees find 
their vacations and terms of service arranged to that end. 

"Filipinitis" is the name given to the condition into 
which all Americans sooner or later slide. They walk 
slowly. The memory is badly affected. Mine was 
before I had been in Manila a week; and that faculty 
has never regained its former acuteness. Dysentery, one 
enemy man cannot meet boldly, becomes dangerous. 
More and more one desires to lie down. Hour after 
hour the formerly energetic American is content to loll 
about and talk nothings on the street corners. The 
habit of decisive action gives way before the continuous 
march of irresolution and soon one requires a day to 
decide what before would have consumed less than ten 
minutes. The spring leaves one's gait and now it is all 
an American can do to drag one foot after the other. 
Sores appear on the bodies of many and sap vitality. 
There is no food obtainable that the appetite relishes. 
The fruit is unsafe because of cholera germs; no fresh 
vegetables that can be eaten with impunity are to be 
had. Colds attack those who have reached this un- 
fortunate condition and are far more dangerous than at 
home, pneumonia following more frequently than in the 
States. Everybody, practically, wears a flannel pro- 
tector over the stomach. This is about the first pre- 
caution strangers are told to adopt. If this warning is 
not heeded, the dampness of the evening will soon lead 
to serious difficulties. 

There is only one railroad yet in the Philippines. 
That line runs directly to the North from Manila about 
one hundred miles to Dagupan. Nearly an entire day 
is consumed in traversing the distance. 

Entire streets are lined with Japanese and Chinese 
stores. 

In fact, over half of the stores in Manila, which is 
no place to shop for anything except Manila straw hats, 

131 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 



are apparently conducted by the two yellow races from 
Asia. 

As to their reputation, I think it is evident and de- 
cided that the Japanese merchants are regarded as sly, 
tricky and unworthy of confidence. Upon the other 
hand, the Chinaman is regarded as honest and thor- 
oughly reliable. 

Late Wednesday came this message from an army 
friend, Lievit. Carl Stone, formerly of the Minnesota 
infantry regiment largely recruited from the University 
of Minnesota. He is now of the Philippine Scouts, a 
part of our army establishment: 

U. S. Signal Corps, Binan, Laguna, Aug. 3, '04. 
F. Chamberlin, 

Hotel Bay View, Manila. 

Make every effort to get here tomorrow if possible. 
Big move. I will be in the field and out of reach after 
fifth. Stone. 

I clapped my hands for the German porter, an ex- 
soldier in our army and was soon informed that Binan 
(Binyan) was on Laguna de Bay, which is really a 
large lake to the southeast of Manila, between which 
city and lake flows the Pasig River, which divides Manila. 

I determined to go, and was up at five-thirty pre- 
paring for the day. The porter accompanied me to the 
Tagadito, which was really a large tug of a length of 
about one hundred feet. Here I, indeed, found oppor- 
tunity to study the Filipino. I was set down, the only 
white person aboard except three Spanish friars in 
brown cowls, in the very midst of several hundred Fili- 
pinos, half of them men. The natives plainly detested 
the friars. There were not over half a dozen chairs 
aboard. These were set forward, and all occupied by 
men whom I judged to be Chinese merchants. Their 
dress, except for helmets, was essentially European in all 
details. There were a dozen or so of bamboo stools, 
of such height as we usually employ, and any number 
of lower seats which were not over eight inches in height. 
It was these last that the natives preferred. 

I took a picture of a better class of native and his 
132 




My nearest Companion 




On the Wharf 



I 



THE FILIPINOS 

little boy who sat beside me. The father feared the son 
would lose his hat. 

In response to a command of the captain, whose 
place was forward, one of the crew brought a tall stool 
for me. 

On the wharf was an interesting group, the mother, 
strange to say, being the only one smoking. 

Many, in fact the majority of passengers, sat on the 
deck, usually on their heels, in the Oriental fashion. 
Most of the women were smoking. Others were chew- 
ing betal nut with irregular teeth that were already 
reddened or blackened with the habit. Poor teeth are 
almost universal among the natives. A shining set of 
molars such as our negroes here at home exhibit is never 
seen in the head of a Filipino. 

The odors aboard would have sickened a person of 
weak stomach; and had I not fought the tendency as 
hard as I could, I would surely have succumbed. 
When the boat had started I pushed as far forward as 
possible and thus obtained some relief. There was an 
incessant jabber. The females dressed about alike. 
Within six feet of me stood a lady of about the average 
size, five feet tall, weighing perhaps one hundred pounds. 
She wore silver ear rings of rude manufacture. A 
cigarette hung to her under lip. She wore a red skirt 
with narrow white stripes every half inch or so. Her 
bare feet were in wooden bottomed sandals. At times 
her foot would withdraw until only the tips of the toes 
would be sheltered. Often she would stand on the left 
foot with the right resting against the left calf. Wide 
flaring gauze fluffed up about the shoulders. The neck 
was bared to the tops of the breasts, but never so low as 
to show even the beginning of their curves. The arms 
were naked except for the gauze which was so loose that 
the arm could be plainly seen for its whole length. 
The profile closely approached that of a chimpanzee. 
The head was flat, the nose snubby, the jaws protrusive, 
the chin retrograding. As she looked over into the water 
her lips moved continuously as if she were singing to her- 
self. One small inexpensive gold ring, set with a blue 
133 



AROUXD THE WORLD IX NINETY DAYS 



and white stone, was worn on the third finger of her left 
hand. She also had suspended from the neck, by a dirty 
cord, and resting on her chest, a brass charm about 
2"x4", showing in bas relief a devil despatching an evil 
spirit, demonstrating that no harm could come to the 
possessor of the relic. Probably half of the women 
aboard were similarly equipped. 

. The "hands" aboard were small. 
They were usually smoking, were barefooted and 
dressed in a pair of cotton trousers and a shirt which 




The Hands 

was so thin that it concealed little. 

One of the men at the wheel asked a lady who was 
amusing a baby on the deck beside him for a light, upon 
which she removed the cigarette from her charming 
mouth with its red teeth, and accommodated the gentle- 
man. The baby had on only one garment, a shirt that 
by no possibility could have reached below his waist, 
and which, because of creasing, was never below his arm 
pits. His mother wore a red shawl twisted about her 
134 



THE FILIPINOS 



forehead and when the baby had procured his lunch she 
deposited him on the deck and then turned her attention 
to perfoming an operation upon the head of a neighbor 
who, too, squatted upon the hard deck. The Ught would 
not admit of a good instantaneous picture; but I am 
sure you will understand what a delightful incident the 
result suggested. The operation was conducted with 
many a sharp "click" that demonstrated progress. 

Hanging from the deck above were a number of 
freshly caught fish which some of the passengers had 




The Landing 

purchased at the market. These slimy things brushed 
my face more than once as I moved about in my search 
for the truth. 

The some score of game cocks aboard so many of 
the native gentlemen carried under one arm did not 
improve matters at all, as may well be imagined. As 
something should be left to the imagination, however, 
I will say no more of these birds. 

Every few minutes we would slow down, far from 
135 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 



land, — sometimes several miles — a number of native 
boats would bump into us head-on with a crash amid a 
babel of shouting voices, for the Oriental always 
screeches whenever excited. These visiting craft would 
do this even when we were proceeding at full speed. 
The secret was that the most daring visitor secured the 
best place for boarding us. 

Not once did we approach a wharf. Often pedlars 
would move about, and then many would purchase 
corn on the cob which was at once gnawed off, 




£^\^ 



The Pedlar 

corn balls, mangoes, bananas, and cakes of a slimy, 
chocolate colored glucose-like concoction that I would 
not have tasted for the whole ship. 

Such people, dressed as they were, acting as they 
were, ignorant as they were, looking as they did, I call 
savages. If they were not savages, the world possesses 
none. There are some who are of a lower scale in de- 
velopment, but the Filipino of the rank and file is a 
savage. It is useless and folly to describe him other- 
136 



THE FILIPINOS 

wise. We might as well look the thing right in the face 
now as at some later time. In Manila and other large 
towns the Filipino has acquired considerable of the 
veneer of civilization, but he is about one man to every 
twenty-five in the islands. The world has always 
united in calling people savages who appear as these 
people did on the Tagadito. Not five ^per cent, of the 
population of the Philippines can read or write a single 
word. 

Considering the distance — and its bearing upon 
the problem — that separates us from the Philippines, 
the effect of the enervating climate and the difference 
between the character of the two races, I believe the 
Filipino problem is far less promising than that of our 
own American Indian with whom we have been able 
to do almost nothing. 

On board this native boat, as invariably in the 
Philippines, I was treated with marked politeness and 
kindness by the natives. They sympathized with my 
curiosity, and aided me when it was necessary to en- 
able me to take such group pictures as I desired. 

Finally Binan was shouted and the Captain pointed 
to the shore and nodded as I looked at him inquiringly. 

HaH a dozen rude boats — dug-outs and two 
thatched-roofed affairs about five feet wide — bumped 
into us with the usual excitement, everybody cursing 
and yelling at once. I clambered down into one of the 
latter style. Bent quite double — for the roof was so 
low I could not sit erect — and in the terrific heat, 
which was surely ninety something — it was just noon 
— and in the midst of half a score of native women, 
children and men over some of whom I stumbled, with 
their garlic, game-cocks, puffing cigarettes, fish, and 
ill-smelling bundles of remarkable purchases in the 
city, I was a good deal disturbed, for the effect of 
all these things on my nerves made me doubt if I could 
long endure this filth and stench without becoming ill. 
Relief, however, came soon, for hardly had the steamer 
left us when I was made to understand that I was to 
enter a small, rude, flat-bottomed boat, sharp at both 
137 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

ends, which came alongside and which, except for the 
two paddlers, contained no passengers. 

Upon later mentioning this courtesy to an Arnerican 
officer he told me Americans always were paid that 
attention when it was possible. 

After twenty minutes of paddling by two natives 
neither of whom wore more than a pair of trousers, 
I came to the landing, entered one of the group of waiting 
carromatas, and was slowly driven through the first small 
Filipino town I had ever visited. 

It all looked as you would expect to find it. The 
streets were about thirty feet wide. On either side were 
rows of one-story, peaked-roofed, twelve foot square 
bamboo huts, set on poles so that a space about five feet 
high was left beneath for the carriages, horses, pigs and 
hens. Huge leaved banana trees half hid many shacks, 
while a small lantern dangled in front of each of them. 
That was all there was to the town except the market, 
the church, and the Spanish style houses of several of 
the well-to-do. Among these modern frame dwellings 
was the barracks of the Philippine Scouts whose com- 
mander I was to visit. 

The church was pure Spanish architecture, with 
the chime of bells set about fifteen feet from the ground 
in an open campanile not over fifty feet away. 

On arriving at Lieutenant Stone's I donned an 
army campaign outfit, blue flannel shirt, khaki trousers, 
leggings, and campaign hat. About the place was the 
air of something doing. Everybody moved quickly. 
All commands were fairly hurled at their recipients. 
Not a word was wasted. Everybody was excited, but 
with enthusiasm and, old militiaman as I was, always 
deeming the drum the sweetest of music, I entered 
heartily into the occasion and grew ten years younger 
in five minutes. 

In the meantime , another company of scouts had 
reinforced us, and Captain Grove, head of the Bureau 
of Information for the archipelago had arrived from 
Manila after a hard ride, lasting all night. I at once 
besieged him to settle the question about Aguinaldo's 












1 


1- 




M 




J. 


, i 


§i 


^ 


t 






■3B 


^^iaffl 



Growp of Stone's Scouts 



i 



THE FILIPINOS 

location in the Islands, for liim I must see. In the 
early evening came a message that the Filipino leader 
was at Cavite. 

Now it was time for the troops to start and as they 
fell in at the ringing bugle call that I knew so well, I 
looked them over carefully and critically; for none of us 
knew, I the least of all, how much might depend upon 
them in the next few hours which presented so many 
possibilities of excitement and danger, and I secured 
pictures of a number of them. 

They were a soldierly lot, so far as set-up, alacrity, 
and general appearance was concerned. They were, 
to be sure, only about five feet, four inches in height, 
but that is not always a disadvantage. They were the 
only Filipinos I ever saw, except others engaged in 
some branch of our military service, who moved quickly 
and with a spring. So far as drill and the show work of 
a soldier were concerned they certainly made a very good 
appearance and in general smartness of uniform, ac- 
coutrement and conduct were the equal of any American 
troops I have ever seen. Their earnestness was 
especially notable and they portrayed none of the care- 
lessness that many of our regular army men exhibit. It 
was evident that each man was trying with all his forces, 
mental and physical, to do the best he could. Not one 
had an air that suggested that he knew it all. There 
was no slouching and no slouchers. It would be a 
delight to drill and train such men, so interested were 
they, and it was thrilling to see them march off with 
that same irresistible, free, strong swing that we now use 
in our army. The game was afoot. We would follow, 
Stone and I, in a carromata, in two hours. 



139 



CHAPTER IX 



CHASING ORUGA 

We were to try to capture the ladrone Amiceto 
Oruga and his band of some forty men. "Ladrone" is 
Spanish for highwayman or bandit. 

This fellow Oruga was a Major on the staff of 
General Malvar, one of the chief commanders of 
Aguinaldo, in 1900-1903. When we first occupied the 
Islands, Mr. Oruga was serving a sentence in the jail 
at Batangas for different crimes. Effecting his escape, 
he joined the insurrection and was captured by our 
troops and sentenced to be hung, for the best of reasons, 
but was released on his promise to behave himself. He 
broke his word, however, and was soon again taken by 
our forces under the vigorous administration of General 
Bell. The general amnesty proclamation of 1903 again 
set him at large. Ever since, he has been in the field in 
command of all the outlaws he has been able to collect 
in his home province, Batangas, to which he confined 
his operations, where the fastnesses of huge mountains, 
with which from earliest boyhood he had been familiar, 
pei-mitted him to defeat repeated attempts at capture. 

His success in eluding us had emboldened him, and 
only a few hours before my arrival in Binan he and his 
band had made a sortie from Batangas Province into 
Laguna Province, entered the town of Cabuyao (Caboo- 
yo) about ten miles south of Binan, at early evening, 
attacked the residence, in the very centre of the town, 
of one of the wealthiest citizens, captured him, and dis- 
appeared with him into the mountains of Batangas. 

This outrage , being reported to Manila , led to the 
"big move," of which Stone had telegraphed me, to try 
to end this fellow's career. For this commendable pur- 
pose some eight hundred scouts and constabulary, all 
under American officers, directed by Captain Grove, 
140 



CHASING ORUGA 

were detailed; and before my entrance upon the stage 
they were proceeding from various barracks to their 
respective designated positions in the hvjng net 
wliich was to be drawn about the supposed habitat of 
Mr. Oruga, and which would be gradually narrowed 
in an endeavor to catch him in it. 

An American officer passed the woi'd along that 
the moment a native appeared who tried to run he was to 
be shot. If I shot anybody all promised me to forget 
that I did it if there happened to be any inquiry after- 
ward; but I was firmly impressed with the idea that I 
must shoot first and investigate afterward unless I 
desired to be boloed.- 

With a 45 Colt on my light hip, a Krag rifle on 
my shoulder and belts filled with cartridges for both 
revolver and gun, I felt all ready for anything, and 
certainly felt "tougher" than anybody else I met. 

At six-thirty a terrific thunder-storm began, but in 
an hour it was over and at just seven-forty-five, in a fast 
gathering blackness I shook hands with Mrs. Stone, 
turned away as her boy stepped up to her to bid her 
farewell — she had only been with him forty-eight hours 
and this parting was therefore particularly hard — 
and we were oft'. 

Each of us carried a blanket roll filled with food 
and what baggage was necessary, and the little springless 
carromata was, when the driver was aboard, filled to the 
brim. Stone and I were wedged in so that neither could 
move limb or body unless the other did also. There 
was no room to stretch one's legs as the driver's seat was 
too near, and my knees were close to my chin, so low was 
our seat. Before we were free from the town even, we 
were in an utter darkness. That, however, only served 
to enhance the beauty of a phenomenon supplied by 
clouds of fire-flies, millions of them, which far sur- 
passed any other incident of a similar nature I had ever 
witnessed. 

Our little pony, when some two miles had been 
passed, began to drag us into deep gullies which the 
rain had caused and a number of times we wei-e nearly 
141 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 



thrown upon our beams' end by a lightning-like descent 
to the hubs of the wheels into a pool, which could not be 
seen, but the mud of which splashed all over us. The 
pony had to try many times to extricate us, and suc- 
ceeded, only immediately half to disappear in similar 
depths. The road could not be seen with any certainty, 
and at times we learned by the one wheel in the brook, 
which ran alongside, that we were surely not in the high- 
way. We commenced this journey with a candle 
sputtering on either side of the vehicle for guidance. 
But these lights jounced out every time we were deposited 
in a cavity, and after relighting them a dozen times or so, 
we abandoned all such attempts and trusted entirely 
to the sense of the pony, — for the driver evinced no 
signs of possessing any, — to reach Santa Rosa, three 
miles away. 

At last we made it, and found ourselves in the 
centre of much activity. A large crowd was in a 
square, in the middle of which were two companies of 
our troops. On the right, in a room open to the street, 
was the town council, in session, surrounded by a gaping 
lot of natives. We drove straight ahead till well out 
of the crowd and then halted at a little store. Taking 
all the arms and ammunition with me I entered the store 
while Stone started afoot for the town council to make 
inquiries about the disposition of the troops which 
should have previously passed. 

My time was expended far more pleasantly, and 
considering the lies with which the mayor entertained 
Stone, far more profitably. The only occupant of the 
store was a young Filipino girl of some twenty years, 
who had plainly had much fun with my predecessors 
and could talk pretty good English. I now recollect 
only one thing she said and that was "Do you think I 
was born yesterday.?'" 

But I grew curious about the city council and, 
loaded down with my murderous outfit, I soon appeared 
before that august tribunal, which was composed of 
half a dozen natives seated about a long table, at the 
head of which sat His Honor the Mayor, engaged in 
142 



CHASING ORUGA 

conversation with Stone. I was introduced and shook 
hands with all. Three kerosene lamps, in tipping 
brackets, half-lighted a room of fifteen by twenty feet. 
Pictures of McKinley and Roosevelt, in colors, were on 
the wall, as the chief ornaments of the proclamation of 
the installation of civil government in the Islands to 
succeed military rule. The little body was dignified 
enough and one or two busied about as if there were 
much to do. Stone must have done some tall lying 
about me as I was treated with great apparent con- 
sideration and respect. But I did not feel at all sure 
that I was not really despised and hated; and I may as 
well say here as anywhere else that I have never been 
sure of the Filipino when he has exhibited friendly 
sentiments. I have always felt that he feared and 
detested us Americans but did not dare show it, and I 
came out of the Islands believing that their inhabitants 
would like to cut our throats, and would do so at the 
first good opportunity that presented itself. I wouldn't 
trust one of them even in plain sight and then I 
should want to be against a wall so that nothing could 
strike me from behind. On this trip I never lay down 
at night but I thought that I should very likely awake 
on another planet. 

At nine we left for Cabuyao (Caboo-yo) three miles 
away, with the troops fifteen minutes ahead. While 
passing the last struggling houses of the town, we came 
to a path that led off to the right. Up this the troops 
had gone. Stone had thought out something that his 
subordinate should know and so decided to leave me in 
the carromata while he afoot — for the path was too 
narrow to admit of the passage of a carriage — pursued 
his men. Well armed as I was, I did not fear, until 
Stone's stalwart form had disappeared in the darkness 
and my carriage became surrounded with several score 
of natives who pushed and jabbered. They spread 
beyond the circle of light shed by the feeble carriage 
candles, and, unaccustomed as I was to the language 
spoken excitedly all about me, with no means to dis- 
tinguish a friendly word from a curse, and stationed in 
143 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 



the centre of the only visible light, with black faces 
peering up into mine, their owners jammed against the 
wheels and body of my conveyance so that a dozen 
hands could have snatched my rifle before I could have 
moved a finger, I concluded that I had better move and 
move quickly. I am willing to admit that a realiza- 
tion of my helplessness made my blood chill for a few 
seconds. I accordingly alighted, pushed through the 
crowd, leaped a stone wall by the roadside and took my 
station some fifty feet away in a field where the grass 
grew to about the height of my waist. Of course I 
thought of snakes and all sorts of other things that, in 
fact, do not exist in the Islands ; but I felt fairly secure 
until I heard a number of shots a hundred yards up 
the path taken by Stone. The natives who had been so 
curious about me vanished at the -sound as if they had 
been spirits of darkness surprised by the sun. My 
nerves were strained to every sound and the next few 
minutes were anxious ones. I thought that Stone had 
been attacked, and I ran up the path. I soon, however, 
came upon him, although we were both pretty cautious 
in approaching one another. The shots had been 
signals to his subordinate. 

The ride to Cabuyao was the worst in my career. 
I have ridden over logging roads in the great forests of 
Vermont, New Hampshire and Canada, where, in the 
course of a mile, an overturn is imminent every other 
minute; where bogs, swamps, and broken, poorly laid, 
decayed corduroy presents the least of the difficulties; 
I have ridden in the Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee 
mountain regions where no wheels, only sleds can travel, 
but nothing ever even approached this night ride 
between Santa Rosa and Cabuyao. The previous ride 
of the evening was fifty 'per cent, better than this latter 
experience. The candles could not be kept blazing and 
again and again we both alighted in mud holes that 
swallowed us up to above the knees, and shouted, pushed 
lifted and pulled our pony out of an abyss. ' Twice my 
rifle was hurled from my hand out into the darkness. 
The rain had recommenced and on one of these de- 
144 



CHASING ORUGA 

lightful occasions we spent surely a quarter of an hour 
in searching with matches in the various mud holes in 
our vicinity for the missing weapon. At last the outfit 
was stalled. The pony could not drag us. He was 
completely exhausted. After pulling him from a huge 
hole into which he and both wheels were so immersed 
that the water entered the carriage, we left him and his 
driver with orders to follow as soon as possible, shoul- 
dered our weapons and started afoot. Remember, I 
could not see my companion had he been as tall as a 
telegraph pole. I could see liothing but nothing. 
There was no sidewalk, and no limit to the road on one 
side, while a brook ran on the other. Certainly I fell 
into that brook a number of times, up to my waist and 
once I was down on all fours right in the middle of it, 
when the bank gave completely away. Bushes and 
thorns slapped my face and cut my hands. But still we 
plunged along and about eleven we came again to houses 
where dogs barked and snarled at us ; but the owners 
were fast asleep. The little lanterns at each hut made 
our progress more secure and, besides, the road became 
firmer. 

Cabuyao we discovered to fie quite a town, with 
many modern residences built in Spanish style. 

Here we were almost immediately joined by Grove 
and then "the three of us started to visit General Juan 
Cailles, one of the most famous insurgents, probably 
Aguinaldo's ablest general, and now Governor of the 
Province of Laguna, within which we now were. This 
visit amused me more than any other incident of our 
entire three month's journey. It exhibited the Oriental 
to perfection. As we approached the outer door 1 
called my companion's attention to a half-dozen natives 
in uniform stretched out, on the bare earth, three on 
either side of the door, all fast asleep, in the various 
positions that sleeping men assume, their rifles lying 
close beside them; besides, two sentinels challenged us. 
Grove explained that these men were the Governor's 
Guard. In the court, within the house, were seven 
more armed men, all asleep, in different corners and 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

nooks. Across the foot of the stairs, so distributed that 
we were obhged to step over them, were four more. At 
the top of the stairs two lay across our path, while in the 
corner to the left were three, all asleep on the floor. 
We turned into the room to the right and there were three 
sleeping on their arms on the bare floor in front of a bed 
beneath whose matting, like a Sultan, lay sleeping the 
object of our search. 

The thing struck me as so utterly ridiculous that I 
could hardly treat the General as other than a joke all 
the time we remained. I did not suppose such a con- 
dition of things had existed outside of Turkey and Persia 
at any time within the last two hundred years and yet 
here it was in the United States. Grove shouted at 
Cailles, and the sleeping guards awoke ruefully and the 
General proceeded to arise. He was dressed in silk 
trousers of a khaki color, a blue army shirt over a stiff- 
bosomed white linen one, and a white linen standing col- 
lar and cuffs; but was barefooted. Thus appareled he 
entered the first room we had seen and sat down before 
a very handsome low writing table of rare wood. I was 
amused to see Grove lift his boots covered with Luzon 
mud — for he had to walk as well as Stone and I — 
up onto the delicate table right under the Governor's 
chin and punctuate his tense statements with cuts of 
the handsome silver-mounted whip which he carried, 
sometimes on the table, sometimes on the boots. Yan- 
kee inability to comprehend Oriental ideas of greatness 
and importance I never saw better or more amusingly 
exhibited. 

Cailles looks like his picture. He is tall, spare, 
hollow-chested and round-shouldered, presenting a 
weak, effeminate appearance. He wore a single dia- 
mond ring on the small finger of his left hand. His 
fingers were long and delicate, and the knuckles turned 
backward. An old woman servant thrust under the 
table two pairs of Oriental velvet sandals. He dis- 
carded the blue and donned the red. He is accredited 
with being half-Portugese and half-French, and, all in 
all, he looks it, with his swarthy complexion and black 
mustache, eyebrows, and hair. 
146 



CHASING ORUGA 

It was Just 12.30 a.m. when we sat down for a con- 
ference. He offered us bino which looked and tasted 
Hke gin, and then proffered a box of cigarettes, all of 
which were thankfully accepted. He showed me a 
recent letter from Judge Taft (already Secretary of 
War) which showed that Taft and he were upon rather 
intimate terms. In a musical low voice he discussed the 
campaign with Grove and Stone and stated that he him- 
self would take the field with all his forces within an hour. 

Meanwhile I examined the room we were in, and 
discovered that the door frames were mahogany, appar- 
ently carved in a most elaborate manner. 

In half an hour the consultation was terminated. 
Cailles called to a servant who brought in russet shoes 
and leather leggins which made the Governor look quite 
like an American officer. He then proceeded to awaken 
his sleeping guards who had not stirred and we bade 
him good night and started for the native shack which 
we had set upon as our abode for the rest of the night. 

Before we lay down, however, we disposed of an 
enormous quantity of our rations The driver finally 
appeared with our carromata, immediately curled him- 
self up on the seat of his vehicle and went to sleep. We 
then bolted our door. I lay on a rattan couch with a 
huge whiskey bottle which I found under it, for a pillow. 
Stone, stretched out on the bamboo floor, drew his army 
blanket over him and soon we were sleeping quietly, 
our weapons carefully disposed for quick employment. 
The entire front of the house was open to the roof from 
two feet above the floor and a dozen natives could have 
simultaneously scrambled through upon us, — the only 
Caucasians in the town, — without resistance had they 
proceeded quietly, or they could have shot us into holes 
from beneath, through the thin bamboo floor between 
parts of which they could have seen with ease. 

Early the next morning, however, I assured myself 
that I had not been assassinated. For the use of the 
pony rig which we tried to use, inclusive of the driver, 
an order on the military department was given called 

147 



AROUND THE WORLD IjST NINETY DAYS 

a "chit" — the most common currency of the Orient — 
for one dollar. 

"Chits" purchase everything among the Asiatics. 
The system is that pursued in social clubs by which 
orders for conveniences are in writing, signed by the 
recipient. In the East this custom extends to all public 
business, and practically no cash is needed in any 
establishment. This is the invention of the Caucasians 
exiled there, to improve the silver basis money system. 
At seven-fifty we left in a two pony carromata for 
Calamba, another town on the lake, distant about four 
miles. The mud had subsided and we moved at a 
satisfactory speed. Those heavy rains, however, leave 
large gullies in the roads, except where we have super- 
intended construction, and progress is slow to an Ameri- 
can, while the jolting and general roughness of the 
journey renders the experience a hard one. 

In this part of Luzon, after the first pleasure at the 
luxuriance of the vegetation and its tropical strangeness, 
there is little that is beautiful or interesting. The road 
at times is through thick underbrush that fairly crowds 
on either hand, and tall palms rise in clusters. Then 
there are stretches of rank grass about to the hips in 
height, that extend far, broken here and there by patches 
of stunted trees that are only huge bushes. The country 
is rolling, but with no steep hills until the mountains 
are neared. 

All the native population was traveling to Calamba 
for it was market day, and we pattered past many men 
and women who carried on their heads the products of 
their little gardens. 

When only a mile from Calamba we came to a 
creek where was a typical scene of much interest. A 
real caravan of men, caraboa carts and women were just 
fording the shallow stream. The caraboas were all 
allowed to walk in, and the women balanced their 
heavy loads on their heads and held their skirts up to 
their hips as they paddled along. Arrived on the other 
shore, they deposited their burdens and then re- 
entered the stream to wash the mud from their legs. 
148 







r/ie Market 




The Brook 



M^^^^py^ 






^^^^^^i^, 


yjf^^ 


H^^^^^^B^Ll^i^ 


..fwimi-< 






'^- .- .. 'i /^^in 


mm 


aj 


v-^^^^S^f^^^ 


r^ 


m^p^^i^^ 





Rations 




The Little Red Schoolhouse 



CHASING ORUGA 

These women possessed a self-confidence, a poise of 
movement that indicated superiority to the men and 
this fact is borne out by the further truth that the women 
and not the male members are the real masters in Fili- 
pino family finance. They plainly have twice the 
brains and depth of character that the men possess. 

At this ford I took several pictures of the most 
interesting scenes that I noted in the Islands, all in a 
splendid light and I was delighted with such a splendid 
opportunity; and you may well imagine my disgust an 
hour or so later when I discovered that I had lost the 
roll of films which contained all of these impressions. 

At Calamba I halted at the barracks of the con- 
stabulary. Opposite the entrance were the shacks of 
some natives and I hastened over to secure a picture of 
a mother starting to bathe her little child in the brook. 

In an hour, which I spent in a bunk in the barracks, 
we had exchanged our two ponies for one, eaten our cold 
lunch and hurried toward Santo Tomas in the interior, 
in Batangas. Here we met more of the market visitors, 
and secured a picture of a corner of the fruit department. 

If I wished to take pictures of anybody I alighted, 
indicated my wishes by signs, and invariably was 
accommodated. 

Not over a mile from town we came to an American 
school-house. 

The lower part of the flag can but just be seen. 
One of the inevitable game-cocks is in evidence. This 
bird occupies so important a place in the life of the 
Filipino that the subject warrants more than a mere 
word. The secret of the institution is, that a cock is 
the best source of revenue a Filipino has — inasmuch 
as it yields the most for the least effort by its owner — 
the only standard by which the ordinary native appar- 
ently measures the relative value of various sources 
of income. 

In the Islands, cock-fighting is practically the only 
form of entertainment, and when to this is appended the 
further note that the custom offers unlimited oppor- 
tunity for gambling, the charm of the cock to the 
Oriental is well explained. 

149 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NIJS^ETY DAYS 




The Introduction 







HI 


PJJM 




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Pj'i 


l^io 






dJi'm 


P%l 




RuBC^^pilfiv 




ll|\ uv 


tt i -ill Ji 


ilvr Smui 




mUi ^ t»^ 


^OJb's 


lE^ lUN 


KP^i^i 


^^%,'^3ll^ 


p*'™'* 


^■%jl 


1 fl 




mm 


I^bI 



Make Your Bets 
150 



CHASi:^G ORUGA 

It is a fact that when our troops in the fighting 
(lays of 1898-1900 occupied a town, often a native head 
of a household could be seen to rush from his habita- 
tion, snatch his cock from the peg to which it had been 
hitched by one leg in the yard, and dash with the bird 
under his arms into the forest, leaving his wife and 
little ones to get along as best they could. But he had 
saved what appeared to him the most valuable asset 
he possessed. 

You see, these cock-fights take place only when a 




Lt. Stone in our Carromata 

fixed amount of money is deposited by the spectators 
as admission fee. This sum is divided into percentages, 
of which the owners of contesting birds have a certain 
proportion. 

Half way to our destination we came to some troops. 
Their sentinels could be seen as little dots at different 
points across the fields and the largeness of the problem 
of capturing Mr. Oruga was evident. He was hidden, 
or made his home in the fastnesses of a mountain that 
was. fully twenty-five miles in circumference, so that we 
151 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

had, in our eight hundred men, about thirty to guard 
each mile, or one to every one hundred and seventy 
hnear feet. In a country in which grass grows in 
patches many square miles in extent, often so high as 
to reach above the head of a man on horseback; in a 
section with large forests of sheltering tropical luxuriance 
so thick as to be impenetrable without a bolo, our task 
was well-nigh condemned to fail from its inception. 
If the outlaws were shrewd and brave they were cer- 
tain to elude us. 




The Faviily 

Opposite the little outpost by the roadside were 
two native bamboo huts, with their occupants. 

At my request the latter, except the mother, who 
could be seen bathing in the background, came out in 
the sunlight and posed for me. It is a constant 
occurrence to see half- nude women bathing behind 
their huts. They dip into a bucket of water with a 
gourd, often a tin can, lift it above the head and then 
reverse it, letting the water onto the head and shoulders. 
152 



CHASING OEUGA 

It appears to give them as much deHght as a pig secures 
from a new mud hole. Only newly arrived Americans 
appear to take any notice of these skinny bodies thus 
exposed to plain view and I am free to say that I saw 
notliing in the Islands that made me think the natives 
lacked artistic sense when these exhibitions did not 
attract the eye. 

An hour and a half brought us to Santo Tomas 
(Tomar), a little knot of houses. We at once called at 
the office (Presidentia) of the Presidente (Mayor) 
where we found that that august official was aw ay.' 




A Foreigner's Dwelling 

The Vice-Presidente, however, was present and I found 
him about the most intellectual native who had yet 
come to my attention. Thought veins stood on his 
forehead, something I had noted in no other native. 
Stone informed me that this official was a college-trained 
man and he certainly so appeared. In the council 
chamber were four clerks or sub-ofiicers besides a 
httle, good-natured looking fellow, of a stout build, about 
five feet, two inches in height. He was the com- 
mander of the local constabulary and had been a cap- 
tain of Spanish forces in the war with us. His uniform 
153 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




The Vice-Presidente 




-A Pony Cart 



154 



CHASING ORUGA 

was of our army. There were a few curious spec- 
tators to view the workings of these great men. The 
prominent figure was a fat old woman who sat in the 
window, smoking a cigarette, and blowing the smoke 
through her nostrils. 

The Presidente was brother of the Vice-Presidente, 
and they were both druggists. 

Stone and the little officer were old enemies be- 
come fast friends, and we made a jolly crowd as we 
walked to the home of the Vice-Presidente to take 
"chow" within. It was especially jolly for me as I 
could not comprehend a word. As we entered the 
yard, I halted my three companions and took a picture 
of them. 

The stable was underneath the house, which was 
plainly the best in town. The building was entirely 
of split bamboo work. iVwaiting dinner I went to 
sleep in my chair. Upon returning to Luzon I was 
interested to notice a very old woman who wore only a 
waist and skirt — which did not join by considerable 
space — and a cross and two cards containing embossed 
images about her neck, sidle up to the dining table at 
which we had seated ourselves, take a match from the 
box that was deposited beside the mayor's plate, light 
it and begin to smoke her cigar — not cigarette. As 
nobody else appeared to notice the incident, I presume 
it was common. 

The little captain of constabulary drank some 
whiskey and was soon in a very comical state. His 
deeds of valor when in the Spanish army were recited 
with wonderful effect, for his tongue would not obey his 
will and about all he could do well was to shout and 
make furious gestures. 

The proceedings were further enlivened by a very 
good dog fight behind my chair, which, however, did 
not last long enough. 

Curry we had, rice and curry, made with some sort 
of meat; I haven't the slightest idea of the sort; dropped 
eggs and coffee without milk. 

, At one-forty we left for Tanauan (Tan-wan) only 
155 




Main Street, Tanauan 




The Church at Tanauan 
156 



CHASING ORUGA 

twenty minutes distant, and the road we found to be one 
of "ours," with the result that it was the equal of any 
American turnpike. Tanauan we discovered to be the 
most interesting town we had visited. I secured a 
picture of its main street. The gateway to be seen 
through the avenue of trees at the farther end of the 
street is the main door to the church. 

This view of the church was next taken, with a group 
of boys who, but two minutes previously were busily en- 
gaged in a game of baseball, played exactly as we play 




The Old Wall at Tanauan 

it here at home, including the excoriation of the umpire 
and any amount of quarrelling. 

Here we met an interesting man, a full-blooded 
Spaniard, in command of a full company of constabu- 
lary — AureUo Ramos, a young, medium-tall fellow, of 
ohve tint, with features almost exactly those of the 
present Spanish monarch. He talked far better Eng- 
lish than either Stone or I do — certainly than we do 
when on a vacation. 

157 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

Failing to hire horses, Ramos sent to the Presidente 
of the town for them, for Stone and myself, but to no 
purpose. As commander of the local station Ramos 
had power to call upon the Presidente for horses for 
military purposes; and after a delay of several hours it 
was suggested that I visit the official in the hope that my 
presence as a traveler might bestir his courtesy to 
furnish the horses we must have. 

Accompanied by Ramos as interpreter I was glad 
to go. 

The Presidente I found to be a rather tall native, of 




A Tanauan Store 



some fifty years of age, living in a frame house of two 
stories. His hair was tinged with white, and, after the 
native style, was worn in a pompadour. 

Beer and cigarettes were served and while these 
were disappearing I questioned my host through Ramos, 
who spoke Tagalog fluently. The mayor said that 
the Americans were helping the natives very much by 
new schools. Asked his opinion of Aguinaldo he 
replied that that gentleman was not a very able man, 
not nearly so able as several of his lieutenants. Cailles, 
158 



\ 



CHASING ORUGA 

the governor of Laguna, had said the same thing at 
our midnight interview the night previous. I asked 
him if he knew much of American or European history. 
He said "Very Kttle." He also stated that, for a long 
time to come, the people of the country would be quite 
unable to comprehend the workings of a government of 
any kind. For half an hour we exchanged views and I 
left with the statement that he could do no greater good 
in the world than by aiding us in every way he could, to 
hasten the day when the greater body of his people 
could govern themselves. 

As I arose to leave, at my request he wrote his 
autograph with the date (Aug. 5) in ink, upon a sheet of 
paper as a memento of the visit, and I gave him my card 
in return and a promise that I would send him a book 
when I returned to America, which has been done. His 
autograph is as follows: 



Autograph of the Presidents of Tanauan 



What in the world the handwriting stands for I 
have no idea. I find no translation in my diary, and 
no mention of him by name. 

Next I visited an American school in the town, 
which was crowded with scholars who appeared eager 
and bright. The methods of teaching seemed to be 
as in America. 

But no horses were forthcoming and at 7.00 
Ramos ordered one of his men to go out and bring in 
two. While he was gone the rain descended in torrents, 
and with the fast gathering darkness I knew we were in 
for another wild ride. I had learned that the road at 
best was poor and intricate to follow. In half an hour 
159 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 



Ramos's man returned with the two ponies, accompanied 
by their expostulating owners who feared that harm 
would come to their little beasts. These natives were 
summarily dismissed by Ramos with an air that only a 
haughty Spaniard can assume when addressing one 
whom he considers his inferior. The contrast between 
the Spanish officer and the poor, distressed Filipinos was 
very marked. At eight we were ready for our mounts, 
but by the amount of bucking that Stone's little animal 
did it was evident that if we had satisfied the owner we 
certainly had not the creature most concerned. Stone 
was thrown several times in quick succession and then 
he resigned the animal to me with great pleasure. 
Being much lighter in weight I found the little brute 
fairly tractable. The saddle I had was the worst pos- 
sible. It was a native affair, altogether too small for 
a man of even my dimensions, and its edges were very 
sharp. The net result was very painful and signs of the 
effects were not lacking for some days. At eight-fifteen, 
immediately after a shower, we left the barracks. It 
being impossible to lengthen the stirrup straps to a suffi- 
cient point I discarded the stirrups and let my feet hang 
loosely, about a foot from the ground. Ramos was on a 
white, China horse, and one of his men was on a pony. 
This soldier acted as a scout. 

Before we were a mile from town, we were in total 
darkness, and in the deepest mud I had yet seen. We 
floundered about amid curses of choice Spanish and 
English. Horses stumbled. Ramos's mount fell down 
in a pot-hole. Stone's pony went in on top of the two. 
The animals struggled to extricate themselves. They 
scrambled up only to slip back, fighting and kicking. 
In endeavoring to escape, my pony slipped into another 
place almost as bad, but at the first trial pulled us out. 
Stone finally dismounted and dragged himself to solid 
ground. His pony, thus relieved, followed, and Ramos 
soon joined us. No damage had been done. 

The next three hours were wild and exciting. It 
was useless to try to follow one another, as much of 
the time, by no power of vision, could even a horse's 
160 



CHASING ORUGA 

head be discerned by his rider. Every moment serious 
accident was expected. With no warning at all, my 
pony would slip to his belly into a mud-hole, or a hind 
leg would break down the edge of a brook beside the 
road. A number of times I presume he went to his 
knees, and twice way down. So long as the road was 
wide we were frequently hurled violently against each 
other by falhng suddenly into the same gully when, 
until the shock, we had no idea of the other's identity, nor 
often of his proximity. Upon one occasion, during a 
heavy downpour, we were mounting a steep hill down 
the middle of which, for its entire length — as well as 
I could judge — a gutter about four feet deep had been 
washed, of the presence of which, of course, all of our 
party were ignorant. The Filipino escaped, as he was 
traveling on the side, but Ramos, who was next, fell in, 
his horse going to his knees. Stone's animal backed in 
and mine followed, head first. Stone was thrown, but 
not badly hurt. Had we known we were in a gully we 
might have escaped sooner, but it was fully five minutes 
before we emerged, after dozens of attempts at scaling 
the banks, and then we did not know what had happened 
till Ramos, who had an electric torch that would work 
at all times except when the most needed, made some 
examination. But the really amusing event of the 
evening was when the Filipino scout was inconsiderately 
thrown over the head of his pony, whose forefeet had 
sunk into a bog. The native landed head first in some 
of the most oozy of the muck. Ramos had said that tliis 
native could not speak a word of English, so you may 
imagine my delight when the Filipino, as he picked liim- 
self up, sputtered out at his entirely innocent little horse : 
"You God damned chump !" Oruga could have heard 
me shout for a half mile. All through the night we were 
halted at frequent intervals by outposts. I well recall 
the first time. At each barrio (ward of a town) the 
native policemen were out in force and when, several 
miles from Tanauan, just as the inky darkness had 
modified a bit, a half-dozen, dim, shadowy, white-robed 
figures suddenly accosted me, as I happened to be in 
161 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

advance by an accident, and, before I could avoid it, 
had seized my bridle, I felt sure Oruga had me. The 
ghostly appearance of these marauders, combined 
with the entire surprise which they afforded, made my 
blood freeze, my heart stop, and the cold chills run 
down my back. My muscles, I admit, were completely 
paralyzed, and I could have made no immediate re- 
sistance. But our Tagalog scout coming up, I was re- 
leased, and Ramos repaid the policemen of the barrio, 
for such they were, by compelling three of them to go 
ahead of us afoot, and show us the correct road. 

On several occasions we came upon camp-fires 
surrounded by native troops, sleeping in the rain on the 
ground, with no blankets, their feet to the smudging 
blaze that was only used to drive away the insects. 

Then the trail narrowed to such a degree that our 
horses had to push to carry us through long stretches of 
grass so tall that it rose above our heads. What a 
pleasant place to meet a lot of Filipino outlaws who 
were on foot and armed with scythes ! A white man on 
a horse caught in such a trap would have just about as 
much chance for. his life as the icicle in the warmest of 
imagined climates. 

Frequently, for a half hour at a time one had no 
idea of the locality of the others of our party. By no 
means could any one of us, for long periods, be certain 
that he was in any road or path. 

Thus did we progress, wet to the skin, nerves 
pretty well racked by the continuous accidents and the 
strain of the long ride in such darkness, in the very 
home of the outlaws of whom we were in quest. Sore 
and raw from the rude saddle, shaken almost to death 
by short-gaited ponies, and fatigued by the loss of sleep 
on the preceding night, there was surely one member 
of the party who was heartily glad when, after a separa- 
tion of half an hour from any of my companions, I 
suddenly rode my pony hard against Stone, who was 
awaiting me to tell me that Ramos had arranged for us 
to stop at the barrio of Santol in the house of its head 
man or Mayor, Mr. Toribio, a full-blooded native. 
162 



CHASIXG ORUGA 

He was known as a faithful friend of our troops. 

In a few moments we were at our host's house, 
which proved to be a typical bamboo shack, of the 
better quality. It was set upon piles, about five feet 
above the ground. The space beneath the floor was 
not enclosed and there we hitched our four horses, 
necessarily in close proximity to one owned by the 
mayor, and in the very midst of four or five pigs who 
grunted their displeasure at the lateness of our arrival. 
There was also a flock of hens in this stable. 

We climbed a modern stairway, and entered a 
place which I shall always see in memory. Imagine a 
single room five feet to the eaves, twenty feet square, 
open on the end toward the morning sun from two feet 
above the floor to the peaked nipa grass roof, all dimly 
lighted by a sputtering lantern that hung from one of 
the rafter poles, in the centre. On the left of the en- 
trance was a pile of newly laid garlic, about twenty- 
seven cubic feet thereof, and surely four times as much 
odor thereto. On the right was a large, rough table, 
surrounded by rude benches, on which lay five of our 
native troops, fast asleep. Directly under the red 
light, and the central figure of the picture, lay a baby 
boy, flat on his back on the bamboo floor, a little 
plump right arm thrown up around his head. The 
boy had on a shirt which could never have reached 
below his waist, and now came only about half 
there and was slit up the front from top to bottom, so 
that its wings lay on the floor, one on either side. A 
girl of some ten years lay with one leg across the baby's 
extended left arm, and the mother and five other 
children, three young women and two babies lay in 
various stages of nudity, some by themselves, others 
side by side, under the same cheap covering, a sheet six 
feet square with two-inch wide red and white stripes. 
One of these cloths covered the bodies of the mother 
and the two babies. The nude baby boy suddenly 
coughed and a girl of some seventeen rolled near and 
covered the little tot with a corner of her sheeting. 

163 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

The father of all this, His Honor, the Mayor of Santol, 
sat up and winked at us, said we were welcome, and 
carefully unfolded a nipa rug, one sixty-fourth of an 
inch thick, about seven feet square, obviously placed it 
as far from his daughters as possible and indicated that 
that was to be our bed. Ramos promptly got the berth 
nearest the young women after thrusting his electric 
torch into the blinking faces of each of them on the plea 
that he had heard that one of them was pretty. The 
old gentleman gave each of us a pillow, made of I don't 
know what, — done up in a section of an eight cents 
a yard red cotton tablecloth, — which was as hard as 
the whiskey bottle upon which I had reposed the night 
before. We stretched ourselves out on the mat, four 
of us, including our native scout, who lay on my right, 
and the night had begun. 

I think the horses duelled with their heels and teeth 
about every half-hour of that night; and they disturbed 
not only the pigs and hens, for on more than one occasion 
a resounding whack from an angry set of hoofs 
intended for a brother horse, doubtless, drove my head up 
from the floor, which was only a quarter of an inch thick 
and effectually dissipated restful slumber. I examined 
the floor and found it of split bamboo, made of slats 
about ten feet long, seven-eighths wide, each two slats 
set one quarter of an inch apart, so that there were 
many odors that very naturally arose from beneath, 
to mingle their sweetness with that of the insufferable 
garlic near which we lay. 

After Ramos's actions there was no hope that the 
watchful father would extinguish the light — had I 
been in his place, I would surely have lighted three 
more — and its gleams added a ghostly pallor to the 
strange scene. The rain fell heavily and steadily, and 
when Ramos called at five-thirty "It's daylight" our 
clothing was as wet as when we lay down, although the 
roof did not leak. At the first sound the girls were so 
frightened at our presence that they scampered hui'riedly 
to the house of a neighbor. Stone said to me " The old 

l(i4 



CHASING ORUGA 

folks always get their girls out of the way as soon as 
possible after troops enter the vicinity." 

This led to a discussion of some of the morals of 
the Filipino women. They seem to rest upon the follow- 
ing basis : it is regarded as a perfectly proper arrange- 
ment for a white man to have a daughter of a native 
household enter his house, provided he previously fixes 
certain details with her parents. Among these circum- 
stances is a definite decision as to the amount of money 
she is to be paid each month, how much she is to be 
allowed for clothing, and the sort of house and style in 
which she is to be installed. When this is done, there 
is nothing immoral in the relationship beginning. It 
may continue as long as the bargain is fulfilled. If the 
man does not keep his word, or is tired of her she may 
leave him and return to her parents, and she is in just 
as good social and moral standing as before she quitted 
her father's home. 

Intimacy under other circumstances was considered 
immoral, save where the father or mother sold their 
daughter's transitory favors. This latter arrangement, 
however, was hardly considered in the best of form. 

If the man were blind or the night as dark as that 
in which we had been traveling, some of these knock- 
kneed, slab-sided, black-toothed, bony, flat-headed 
creatures with retreating forehead might be attractive, 
but I hardly could conceive of any other way in which 
their charms {H) could appeal to an American gentle- 
man. And yet there is another explanation, and that 
is the climate. There can be no doubt but that the 
moral sense becomes blunted in many a Caucasian 
in the tropics. 

The mind enters a lethargy which paralyzes the 
acuteness and alertness which one possesses in a cooler 
chmate. Perhaps the remark to Mrs. ChamberUn of 
a splendid Dutch fellow on the way to Europe from 
China illustrates as well as anything what I mean. 
He had been lonely in Java, and was homeward bound. 
"Do you know," he stated, "it's a good thing for a 
young man in the tropics to go home once in a while. 
165 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

He forgets if he doesn't." That, I think, explains many 
things I saw in the East. The European or the Ameri- 
can has really forgotten; so do not blame him too much, 
until you have tried to live there yourself. 

It is interesting to consider that when with child, 
the Filipino mother is at the zenith of her pride. When 
the approaching event plainly casts its shadow before, 
she sets out jubilantly on a round of visits to the huts of 
her friends, far and near, and receives the congratula- 
tions of all. 

To my surprise I found that I had contracted no 
cold during the night at the Mayor's. Later in the day, 
when riding, I often became chilled and was promptly 
made to alight by Stone to get thoroughly wet again in 
the warm rain, which restored my usual temperature and 
effectually guarded me from harm. 

The roof under which we had tried to sleep was 
about four inches thick, of nipa straw. The barrio 
was without a drop of drinking water other than what 
was brought by natives a distance of about five miles, 
in long bamboo joints, stopped at either end. 

I had promised myself a visit to the volcano Taal, 
from whose slopes we were but a short distance, but 
we knew the terrific rain would make the ascent un- 
satisfactory, and I abandoned the project. 

No sooner were the some twenty of us awake 
then all of the natives, including every child old enough 
to do so, lighted a cigarette. Awaiting breakfast, I 
inspected the establishment. An opening in one corner 
of the floor, entirely unshielded from the remainder of 
the room, was the only convenience afl^orded for the 
exercise of the necessary usual bodily functions of the 
members of the household. The sides of the house were 
nipa basket-work. Practically everything was kept 
in nipa sacks about the shape and dimensions of the 
American paper flour-bag. The family was first ready 
to eat. They squatted, half a dozen of them, on their 
heels, about a single gourd filled with rice; each, as 
desired, dipped into this common supply with the hand, 



166 



CHASING ORUQA 

and the contents rapidly disappeared. When the meal 
was terminated, the mother daubed some betel nut with 
lime (the latter from oyster shells in Lake de Taal,) 
which she extracted from a small whittled cup (which I 
promptly purchased) and then devoted her attention to 
my curiosity. I purchased entirely by signs — bidding 
one piece of money after the other — a bolo, a saddle, 
a nipa bag, the wooden spoon with which they had stirred 
their rice, and several other small articles, spending in 
all about to a dollar. I took such an evident interest in 
everything that the entire family assumed a broad smile 
of appreciation, and voluntarily exhibited all that 
the place could present. 

The bolo was in a scabbard made of two pieces of 
split wood bound together every three or four inches 
with withes. The blade was more or less exposed. 
This design of scabbard seems to be quite generally 
followed in the East as a number of weapons which I 
secured at various ports were similarly equipped. To 
an American, who invariably encircles the scabbard 
with one hand and draws with the other, this split 
scabbard is a dangerous affair, as I have since several 
times demonstrated to my entire satisfaction. 

I strung my bolo to my waist, on the left, and felt 
tougher than ever. Before we left they gave me several 
of the best things they possessed and, poor and naked as 
they were, resolutely refused to accept a penny although 
the temptation must have been very great. Truer 
courtesy I never have seen. Ten cents in money meant 
a large sum to them. 

Then Ramos — what a devil that fellow was ! 
His next stunt was to photograph the entire family, 
although, so dark and rainy was it, that four hours ex- 
posure would have fastened nothing on a film. In a 
long harangue, in Tagalog, which Stone translated to 
me, Ramos explained that I was a great American his- 
torian, and that I was even then traveling in the Philip- 
pines with a large escort, to secure material for a great 
history of the Philippines and their people, especially of 
the Tagalogs. The Mayor was visibly impressed and the 
167 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

mother awed. Continuing, the Spaniard said that my 
books were known all over the world; that many of 
them could be seen in Manila and that I was probably 
the greatest author who had ever lived ; and that now I 
especially requested that the speaker, who was one of 
my escort, would secure a photograph of the Mayor 
and his family. They expressed great willingness to 
accommodate me; and with entire solemnity the young 
Spaniard ranged the half-dozen members of the house- 
hold against the garlic of execrable memory. The 
Mayor, in his transparent cotton shirt, red and white 
checked, in large squares, worn over his only other gar- 
ment, a pair of white cotton trousers, extending about 
half way to the ankles, and with his feet bare, occupied 
the right of line. Then came his hollow-chested, 
bow-legged, barefooted wife, in a loose, low-cut waist 
and shawl-like skirt, her mouth crammed with betel 
nut, and a nude baby sucking at her wasted breast. 
Then came other children, the boy with the split 
shirt, and a couple of young girls — all save the mother 
and the two babies smoking cigarettes. 

Ramos, with great patience, made them change 
places, then change again, always keeping up a running 
fire of talk about my greatness, and the necessity of 
their appearing well or else my wonderful history would 
be injured. If they did well, he promised the father a 
copy of the work, at which all who were old enough to 
understand smiled happily. 

After making the mother move the nursing babe 
from one side to the other, the tormentor announced that 
all was ready and taking my camera pointed it at the 
wondering, awed group, gave a final "Sh!" which made 
them exert all their forces to keep their poses, snapped 
the range-fielder and dismissed them with a long flowery 
peroration on the service they had done the Tagalog 
people by immortalizing their own countenances. 

Our breakfast was boiled eggs, rice and coffee, 
without milk. Upon our host assuring us that some 
water had been boiled, we filled our empty canteens 
with it ; but none of us dared to touch it all the day long. 



CHASING ORUGA 

At eight-forty we set out for home. The work of 
my companion was probably done. It was useless to 
continue the expedition with the roads in such a con- 
dition, and growing worse, as they were, every minute, 
under the terrific rain that showed little evidence of 
abating its vigor. 

Before we had gone a mile, however, we were sur- 
prised at what was plainly volley-firing, which, to me, 
appeared not very many miles distant. This was fol- 
lowed by scattering shots and then more resounding 
volleys. It was the sound of battle! Stone swung his 

hat and yelled "They've struck him. By they've 

struck him!" He was the very incarnation of the 
glorification of battle. There was more volleying — 
more scattering shots. I- felt such exhilaration, such 
elation as never came to me before. I know the wild 
ecstasy of battle. If such a sensation could be pur- 
chased, the whole world would bankrupt itself to pay 
the price. 

This was followed by keen regret that we were 
not there when the brush was taken; but still we were 
all smiles, for much of the forenoon, at the thought that 
the expedition was successful. 

A short route was taken and we were soon at Santo 
Tomas. Here we called on Malvar, a famous general 
in the old days. He impressed me as a large-minded 
man, and I am inclined to place him as a broader 
guaged man than any other native I met. He offered 
us beer and cigarettes and said that he did not think 
Aguinaldo the ablest general the Filipinos had. To 
his mind, Luna, whom Aguinaldo is reputed to have 
ordered assassinated, was a far more capable military 
leader. Malvar had the air of a man sure of himself, 
and spoke in the low, quiet, modest tone of the man of 
much experience. Several American officers, hearing 
of our presence, called, and I noted that their host was 
especially cordial if he learned that a gentleman had 
fought against him. 

At eleven-twenty we were at Ramos' barracks once 
more ; and thence we traveled by two-pony carromata to 
169 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

Calamba, arriving at three-five in the afternoon. 

On the road we often passed strange Americans. I 
wanted to hug every one of them, but Stone and they 
looked Hke images, and never indicated that either had 
seen the other. To my expressed astonishment, Stone 
rephed that no Americans in the Islands now ever spoke 
unless introduced, no matter how remote they might be 
from the centres of population, to stranger countrymen. 

Stone left for Biiian, I for Los Baiios, a short 




Going to Calamba Market 



journey by water. There was a road to my destination 
but I was assured that it was impassible. 

All of the towns which I visited were directly con- 
nected by telephone and telegraph with Manila and with 
each other, under the administration of the United States 
Signal Corps. 

These conveniences had been established in the 
early days of our occupation and their network may be 
170 



CHASING DRUG A 

conservatively said to extend substantially to all the 
towns of the Islands. For a mile I walked through the 
town of Calamba with no white man in view, while 
scores of natives were on every hand. I was not 
exactly at ease, I admit, but having been told that there 
was no danger I continued. iVrriving at the edge of the 
Lake, I hailed a sailing banco, a sailboat with bamboo 
balancing poles resting on the water on either side, 
about ten feet from the boat. Immediately a boy of 
some sixteen who could not have weighed in excess of 
one hundred and ten pounds, dropped into the water and 
waded to me. I did not understand what was to be 
done, but when the little fellow approached me and 
doubled over, back toward me, I proceeded to climb 
onto him. He promptly shook me off and indicated 
that I was to sit on his shoulder with my legs dangling 
down over his chest. 

I doubted the ability of my horse to carry me, but 
as he did not appear anxious, I gave him my confidence, 
and it was well placed. He pushed me aboard the 
rickety sloop, without wetting me even with a drop of 
water, not, however, an important point just then, as I 
had been unable to enjoy any dry clothing for forty- 
eight hours 

The boat was about thirty feet over all, with a 
huge mainsail and a jib. It looked as if a storm were 
approaching, but I had little fear as I felt confident these 
natives would be competent sailors. There was a basket 
work cover over the centre of the boat, but too low to 
admit of my sitting upright under it, so that I was 
obliged half to recline against a native who had a rooster 
with him. There were also four other native passengers, 
including one young woman. All smoked cigarettes. 
The crew consisted of an elderly man and three boys. 

Not more than ten minutes had elapsed since my 
coming aboard when we were struck by a violent squall 
of wind and rain. In my awkward, cramped position, 
with rain dripping down all over me, with the boat 
shipping water at every wave, until two of the other 
passengers began to bail with large tins — for we were 
171 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

quarter filled — with the sloshing of the outriggers as 
they splashed into the waves, first on one side and then 
on the other, as we careened heavily; with the exciting, 
ear-splitting shouts of the crew and its director, who 
were now stationed out on the windward outrigger to keep 
us from capsizing, I cannot say that I was content. 
Yielding to the frantic appeals of the captain, enforced, 
as indeed were the most of his earnest remarks, by 
numerous repetitions of "God damn it!" two of the 
passengers worked their way out upon the bamboo 
outrigger and stood there clinging to the guy-ropes, 
tossed now way up in the air, now buried waist-deep in 
the wild water as we careened. 

By a strange lack of foresight, the Tagalog language 
is devoid of forcible expletives; and undoubtedly one 
of the most benevolent things we have done for the 
Filipinos is to introduce our choicest cuss words. The 
fact that the only English words many of the natives 
acquire are of this character is the best evidence in the 
world of the crying demand and value of just such ad- 
ditions to their limited vocabulary. 

Had it not been for the confinement to my recumbent 
position, I should have been more at ease; but to be 
battened down, as I was, in effect, with so much pitching, 
flying water and screaming, for I was the only one not 
engaged in emmitting shouts of terror, was trying on the 
steadiest of nerves, and I found use for all of my self- 
control. Had the others not excited my derision so by 
their plain terror, I would have been probably much 
more frightened. 

But, never again ! Once will do very well. It was 
perfectly apparent that in time of stress and danger 
the native Filipino is entirely helpless in all functions 
of reason or body except in lung exercise, and all the 
testimony I secured upon this point was to the same 
effect. They "lose their heads" entirely when danger 
comes, and shoot up in the air or down into the ground. 

After an hour of such experience we approached 
Los Banos. The rain had ceased and, after some diffi- 



172 



CHASING ORUGA 

culty, my landing was effected by placing an end of 
one of the outriggers on the shore. On this round 
bamboo pole I balanced myself and walked to land, 
a thoroughly relieved man I can assure you. To be 
drowned like a rat in a trap is about the worst end one 
can imagine, and I had been confronting it for some time. 

As I stepped ashore I noted that a family were 
bathing not over ten feet distant, the father with nothing 
to hide his nakedness, the young boy likewise. The 
latter was engaged in scrubbing his mother's back. 

Los Banos (The Baths) is a delightful place, fairly 
honeycombed with hot springs of almost boiling tem- 
perature. Here we have a hospital for our troops. 
The scenery about is beautiful. The hills are not too 
high to have lost their vegetation, and are of sharp pro- 
file, and striped with many white waterfalls whose 
music is eternal. All in all it was the only beautiful 
place I visited. 

In the morning, on hearing the whistle of my 
steamer, I hurried to the shore and hired two boys to 
take me out to her in a banco. 

They paddled about and finally took me back from 
where I had started as the steamer was to come to the 
wharf, which, of course, the boys knew all the while 
from the pile of stores and merchandise that lay on its 
piles. But I had not seen these evidences, so the little 
naked rascals found me an easy target and exacted ten 
cents from me for each of them before I stepped into 
their crazy cockleshell. I was helpless, except that I 
returned good for evil by giving them in so forcible a 
manner that they must even now recall them, a number 
of words the equivalent of which unfortunately did not, 
as already suggested, exist in their dialect until my visit 
to Los Banos. 

The trip to Manila was without incident. The 
steamer was the same as that upon which I had come 
to Binan, three days previous. 

In the capital city I soon learned that Oruga had 
not been seen by any of our men and that the volleying 
and scattering fire which had so aroused me were only 
173 



AROUXD THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

blasting on a roadway which the government was build- 
ing; and that, owing to the condition of the roads, the 
movement had been postponed. Exit Oruga from my 
life — and I have not since heard that he has been 
captured. 



CHAPTER X 



DEWEY'S VICTIMS AND MANILA 

It was late Sunday afternoon, August 7th, when I 
arrived at Manila from the chase after Oruga. 

The first thing I saw that I now recall vividly, 
and that found a place in my note-book was that Mrs. 
Chamberlin's hair had turned very gray. wShe was in a 
highly nervous state, did not sleep well, never more than 
an hour at a time, ate poorly, and could do but little 
without becoming much exhausted and was clearly on 
the verge of nervous wreck. But it was the change in 
her hair that startled me to the real situation. I knew 
that only the most serious conditions could explain such 
an incident and I anxiously counted the hours to our 
departure from this land. In considering my duties 
yet to be done, I saw that I should not leave, if it could 
be safely avoided, before the thirteenth, as originally 
planned; but the Korea, one of the palaces of the 
Oriental service, was to leave for Hong Kong on Tues- 
day, and I urged that my companion accompany some 
friends on that, for I had been informed that the climate 
of China would be far more agreeable than that of 
Manila. But she would not consent. She would go 
with me as long as she could. 

Monday I spent at the government offices and in 
the continuation of my search for Aguinaldo. 

Captain Grove not yet having returned from the 
Oruga affair, I inquired of the police department. 
It could tell me nothing definite. It reported that it was 
paying no attention to the late leader. In company with 
one of the heads of the secret service department, Mr. 
Hard, I went to see Maximano Resales, one of Aguin- 
aldo's stanchest friends. Upon inquiry at the door, we 
were informed that Senor Rozales was away. Mr. 
Hard replied "Tell him that Mr. of the Secret Ser- 
vice has sent us here to see him." 
175 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

In a minute we were told to enter and were soon 
greeted by the man we sought 

In the course of a conversation which lasted half an 
hour, and which was begun with cigarettes and liquid 
refreshments, of course, Rozales said^that he had known 
Aguinaldo since the latter was a little boy, and that his 
young friend had always been, and was, a great reader. 
He said that Aguinaldo was not paying any attention to 
politics, that he was saddened by the misfortunes that 
had come upon him, and that he was now devoting all 
his energy to the development of his farm. Only two 
days before, Rozales said, the former leader had ap- 
peared at the place at which we were calling and had 
borrowed several ploughs. Where could he be seen.? 
Where was his farm and would he receive me and talk ? 

Mr. Rozales believed that he was at Naic, on 
Manila Bay, some twenty miles from Manila, and he 
was sure that he would be glad to see me. 

My police department friends, however, believed 
that this information was incorrect and insisted that the 
object of my search was at Cavite, as had Grove's 
informant. 

Still I was uncertain, and in comany with Captain 
Sever of the City Police, a Texas boy, I went to see 
Felipe Buencamino, Aguinaldo's Secretary of War, who 
had lately been in the States. He assured me that the 
man I sought was at Cavite toward Naic and that 
Rozales knew exactly where, as he had often visited him. 

I had to choose and I decided to try Cavite, as it 
appeared almost impossible that the Philippine Govern- 
ment could be in error as to the location of so important 
a man. 

Monday night was a sleepless one for Mrs. Chamber- 
lin. She had come to where something had to be done. 
She must leave Manila, and by ten Tuesday morning 
she had agreed to accompany our friends on the Korea, 
and await my coming in Hong Kong a week later. 

Captain Sever and I, on the "Bucky O'Neil," the 
large police launch named for Mr. Roosevelt's martyr 



176 




In Manila Bay 




[»|>3n<n!>saHMnMMMi 



With Dewey's Compliments 




4 



We boarded this one 




A Troop-ship 



DEWEY'S VICTIMS AND MANILA 

friend and comrade, started across Manila Bay for 
Cavite, ten miles distant. As a guest we carried Dr. 
Storror, mentioned previously in the Midway chapter. 

At a distance of, say, liaK a mile from the front of 
Cavite, lie four of Dewey's victims. Three have been 
entirely raised, while one shows only her nose and for- 
ward deck above the water. 

They are all rusted, dismantled hulks. Their 
plates were three-fourths of an inch thick, and made of 
boiler iron. They seem toy-ships compared with those 
of our splendid fleet. We were told that they had been 




The Ram 

sold for junk and were being torn into pieces as fast as 
possible. 

Upon one of them, which we were told was the 
Regina Christina, the Spanish flag-ship, and which we 
visited, the work was conducted by a large force of na- 
tives. A large number of unexploded shells, which ap- 
peared to be of five-inch calibre, had been collected 
by a stanchion. 

I tried to purchase several for souvenirs, but was 
unable to do so. To my intense surprise, however, a 
few minutes later, the native foreman of the wreckers 
177 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

approaclied us and presented me with five one-pound 
cartridges, all of which were still loaded. At my ex- 
pressions of delight he showed his teeth in appreciation 
and flatly refused to accept a silver piece which I offered 
him. This is a typical experience among the Filipinos. 
They respond instantaneously to honest interest and 
sympathy. That poor fellow, although he could not 
understand a word I said, still could sense my eager 
search for relics, my pleasure at discovering the large 
shells, my disappointment at his inability to sell them to 



Dr. Storror and the Author 

me, and my honesty in not trying to steal anything. 

All the interior works of these ships which had been 
for months at the bottom of the harbor had been twisted 
and torn by the flames. Large holes through the iron 
plates showed how true had been Dewey's aim. They 
were plainly riddled. 

Near where we stood to have our picture snapped, 
scores of men had been roasted to death by the red-hot 
iron plates and fierce fiames that rushed over the entire 
178 




A Germ Factory 




In Manila 




Where stalks the Cholera 




A Manila Store 



DEWEY'S VICTIMS AND MANILA 

ship. They were helpless in a scorching oven. What 
shrieks of awful suffering and frightful death must have 
rent the air even above the roaring guns and the crash- 
ing and tearing of hostile shot, for the few moments 
during which the five score of Spaniards,whose skeletons 
were brought up from the deep three years later, lived 
in that hell! 

Arrived at Cavite, we at once proceeded to the bar- 
racks of the local constabulary. There we lunched 
and were informed that Aguinaldo was surely at Cavite 
Viejo (old Cavite) whose church tower could be plainly 
seen in the distance. It was nearly three o'clock before 
we were ready to make the journey and the Korea would 
leave at four, so we decided to wait till the .morrow 
before acting on our latest information, and raced across 
the bay in a heavy storm of rain which prevented our 
seeing the huge steamer we sought, until we almost ran 
into her. 

Wednesday I divided between the government 
oflSces and riding about the city, taking views whenever 
the heavy rain would admit of it. 

It is forbidden to ride faster than a walk past the 
building in which the courts of justice are in session, 
owing doubtless to the fact that their solemn proceed- 
ings would be interrupted by the noise of faster driving. 

As we passed over a bridge, a little from the centre 
of the city, I took some pictures which will show the 
dangers from disease to which Orientals constantly 
subject themselves. That illness can be averted or 
cured does not occur seriously to the minds of the in- 
habitants of the East. 

Just beyond, we ran into a puddle a hundred feet 
wide and a hundred yards in length that extended from 
curb to curb. Here I alighted from our carromata and 
took several pictures of wading women. 

Their head coverings were usually baskets or 
bundles which their owners carry in that way, to leave 
the hands free to raise the skirts. 

From this puddle, I called at the hospital for lepers. 

Those who visit all the morgues and catacombs 
179 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

better halt before experimenting with a leper settle- 
ment. I have seen purposely, to train my self-control, 
some horrors, and many surgical operations of a char- 




■fifai-'.-_?:Sai 



A Manila Puddle 
acter to try the nerves of the steadiest and most hardened 
of physicians, and I supposed I had seen about as ghastly 
spectacles as the world could afford. But I was in error. 
I had not seen a leper. I had traveled too little. 
180 




The latest Style 




In the Swim 




An elderly Lady 




The Beggars 



DEWEY'S VICTIMS AND MANILA 

I have no hesitation in affirming that in such 
advanced steps as I saw it, the disease is the most 
awful sight that the world affords. 

In a word, it is the exhibition of such putrefaction 
of the body, while one is still alive performing all the 
functions and offices of human life, as takes place after 
death. 

I walked through hundreds of poor people con- 
demned to this living death, forbidden ever to touch 
another living soul, debarred from ever crossing the 




Entering Manila 



dead line of this hospital. Attended by a half-dozen 
attendants, who were themselves victims, I walked from 
ward to ward, looking into each face. Some hid from 
my view. The horror of it all, the awfulness of the 
sentence which had been passed upon these people, the 
frightful distortion of faces and limbs, the exposure of 
cheekless faces, noseless, earless — God ! what a sight 
that was! 

I had to conserve all my strength of mind and body 

181 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NJNETY DAYS 

to stand upright, and had any accident occurred, had 
an additional horror come upon me before I had steeled 
myself for the ordeal, I would have fainted. Every 
moment I was in that great house of the living dead I 
was in danger of losing my control as never before. 

I saw one woman whose mouth extended to a point 
within an inch of the right ear. She sat by an open 
window smoking a cigarette, which was inserted close 
to the ear. Her entire jaws were wholly exposed both 
below and above; her nose was entirely missing, and 




A Manila Industry 

her hands were bent backward until they almost touched 
the elbows of the arms to which they were respectively 
attached. 

It should be here said that she was the most ad- 
vanced victim in the institution. My approach to her 
was signalled to me by a soft word to steady my nerves, 
and it was fortunate that such precaution was taken. 

I carefully discussed the disease with the physicians 
and learned that it is not considered as ever contagious ; 
182 



DEWEY'S VICTIMS AXD 3IAXILA 

that these poor inmates are as happy as the rest of us, 
and that they Uve exactly with the same inchnations and 
temptations as far as possible, the life of those who are 
in the wide world. They have their love-affairs with 
all the attendant joys, sorrows, mistakes and misfor- 
tunes that accompany what one of my pessimistic 
associates calls the love-disease. 

This visit consumed about an hour in all, and when 
I returned to the city, the mud puddle shown in the 
foregoing picture had disappeared. 

That evening I spent at dinner with Commissioner 
Ide, who heads the department of Finance and Justice. 
The only other guest was W. Cameron Forbes, the 
newly arrived Commissioner w^ho would lead the 
Department of Commerce and Police, a young Boston 
business man, the son of a daughter of Emerson and 
Mr. Forbes of Milton and Boston. From my obser- 
vation of tins young gentleman, I feel that he is worthy 
of the great names of his ancestors. 

I noticed that no wine appeared at the dinner, 
which was elaborate, and several hours later I hap- 
pened to state that I had been trying bino, the vile liquor 
General C allies had offered me. 

The Governor, without making any reply, rang a 
bell and ordered some cordial, and explained that it had 
been a very dry dinner and evening thus far, because he 
had been led to believe that I was in the Islands dis- 
tributing temperance tracts among the soldiers. Thus 
was I slandered for following literally my instructions 
to tell nobody my errand to the Philippines. I could 
hardly beheve my ears and I thought Forbes, whom I 
had deemed rather phlegmatic, would fall off his chair 
with laughter. 

Amazed beyond description I asked to be enlight- 
ened. In response the Governor said it was entirely 
on supposition due to this : a cable had recently arrived 
from the War Department asking that certain unusual 
rights be accorded me. The request was so extraor- 
dinary that the Philippine Government cabled an inquiry 
for the reason therefor. In the reply, the War Depart- 
183 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

ment stated that the request had been preferred by 
Major-General O. O. Howard, one of my dearest 
friends. But as to my errand on the Islands no 
intimation was given. 

This lack of information, of course, naturally led to 
more speculation than would otherwise have been the 
case ; and all unknown to me I became not only a person 
of sufficient importance for two governments to cable 
eleven thousand miles about, back and forth several 
times, but also the subject of inquiry between the 
different members of the Philippine Commission, and the 
cause of some good-natured commiseration extended to 
my host. Governor Ide. 

Owing to General Howard's well-known reputation 
for Christian work. Governor Ide concluded that I had 
probably come to distribute temperance tracts to our 
soldiers, and in walking down to his palace that very 
evening, in company with Governor Wright, Governor 
Ide had jokingly remarked that he had invited a pro- 
fessional temperance fellow to dinner that evening and 
that as Forbes didn't drink anything, he. Governor Ide, 
expected to have a drouth the rest of the day. Wright, 
being a Tennesseean, where it is against the law to drink 
water, evidently had no desire to be present, and we 
had the drouth, sure enough. Had I not accidently 
mentioned the bino incident, I reckon Governor Ide 
would have passed the most uncomfortable evening he 
had spent in his home for some time. 

The palace of Governor Ide showed how seductive 
an Oriental existence might be to an American. The 
rooms were very large, furnished with splendid tapes- 
tries. Eastern armor, soft colored lights, thick, rich rugs, 
beautiful works of Japanese and Chinese bronze and 
lacquer and graceful candelabra. Soft-voiced, obse- 
quious servants did one's bidding; the air was cooled 
in some way, how I know not; the perfume of tropical 
blossoms filled the entire place and I could well under- 
stand how one to whom this life had once been a daily 
experience would never be otherwise satisfied. It 
demonstrated how an acquaintance with Eastern living 
184 



DEWEY'S VICTIMS AND MANILA 

could mitigate the hard life I was enduring in that same 
city, because, I could then see, I did not know how to 
do it, or lacked the opportunity. A hotel could be con- 
ducted in Manila that would be a dream of comfort and 
luxury to the charm of which the most practical Ameri- 
can would immediately surrender; but that place has 
yet to be instituted, and I presume it is destined to be 
only a dream in our day. 

Mr. Forbes placed at my disposition a large steam 
launch belonging to the harbor inspection department, 
and I was thus assured of running down Aguinaldo if 
he were anywhere near salt water. 



185 



CHAPTER XI 



AGUINALDO 

One of my main purposes in the Philippines was to 
see and talk with Aguinaldo. Whatever the Filipinos 
or Americans now say of him, he was the leader of the 
native movement against Spain and against us, the 
Commander of the Filipino forces and the President of 
the Insular government. 

To-day, so far as. my experience permits me to 
judge, the American officials in Manila regard Agui- 
naldo as a man of very small capacity; and the natives 
join in this testimony. 

My own impressions of the man are all to the 
contrary, and strongly defined and positive. And I 
think the great tasks, for they were great, which he per- 
formed are silent but immovable and convincing wit- 
nesses to support my view. 

When the attacks in the nineties upon Spain's rule 
in the Philippines were begun by the natives, Aguinaldo 
was a country school-teacher. 

In the course of three or four years he drew himself 
up above every other Filipino and became the command- 
ing officer of the insurrection, the President of the only 
organized native government among 8,000,000 people, 
and the first man of his race to be known beyond the 
shores of Luzon. 

As already indicated I was presented to a number 
of Aguinaldo's principal generals and members of his 
cabinet. Without exception, they freely expressed the 
opinion that Aguinaldo was not the greatest man of the 
Filipino people, and never had been; that he was not 
even able, but was shrewd, smart and lucky. Upon this 
last they laid especial stress. They particularly stated 
that he had more luck than any other of the candidates 
for the leadership of the insurrection against Spain, 
immediately prior to the coming of the Americans. 
186 




Aguinaldo in 1898 



AGUINALDO 

When this luck is analyzed, the disparagement of 
Aguinaldo by his erstwhile companions-in-arms does not 
appear to be either soundly based, or, to say the least, 
generous or true. 

The Filipinos had some trained soldiers among 
their generals. By common consent Aguinaldo ruled 
them all. Luck does not win a succession of military 
victories. \ 

At least, it never has, and Aguinaldo certainly did 
have a train of successes against the Spaniards; and 
there is Httle doubt but that he would have eventually 
utterly defeated them had his efforts continued. 

A man of even mediocre ability cannot perform 
what Aguinaldo did. A few hours after I had seen him, 
I had a talk with Mr. Forbes. Mr. Forbes asked my 
opinion of the man. I said that, much to my embarass- 
ment and surprise, I had formed an impression that 
Aguinaldo was a pretty large man, which was contrary 
to the judgment of every other American in the Islands 
so far as I knew. 

"But he must have been a large man to have ac- 
complished what he did," Mr. Forbes said. I think so 
and unless the "luck" theory can be better detailed to 
me than it yet has been, I must continue to believe that 
the prevalent idea among the American officials at 
Manila that Aguinaldo is not worth noticing is an error. 

Aguinaldo was born in Cavite Viejo (old Cavite), 
a little hamlet that nestles on Manila Bay, some three 
or four miles in the rear of Cavite proper. 

Now that Mr. Forbes had supplied my transpor- 
tation, I carefully considered what I would do. 

My choice of the next step was the last given to me. 

The situation was this: Rozales said the late 
leader was at Naic. The officials at Cavite said old 
Cavite — the little hamlet where he was born. French 
said St. Louis; and I had just one day that I could give 
to finding the man I sought. In forty-eight hours I 
must leave for China, and one of these two days was 
already appropriated otherwise, and I could not visit 

187 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

Naic and old Cavite in one day, so my choice of the 
journey for the next day was final. I selected old 
Cavite. Accompanied by the best interpreter in Manila, 
Mr. Fischer, of the office of the Executive Secretary of 
the Government, we steamed for old Cavite. 

The water was too shallow to permit us to proceed 
nearer than a mile to the shore and we lay there for an 
hour tooting our whistle for somebody to come out and 
row me in. At last our efforts were successful, and a 




/ am ready to go ashore 



fisherman paddled his rude dug-out alongside. It was 
one of those rickety, ramshackle affairs about as stable 
as a canvas canoe, but rendered safer by outriggers 
which lay on the water for the entire length of the craft 
some seven or eight feet on either side. There was also 
a sun protecting thatched roof — too low — over part 
of the thing. 

One of the boatmen assured me that Aguinaldo 
was in the town. But I did not feel sure. What I did 



AGUINALDO 

feel confident of was that these boatmen would like to 
earn a dollar, whether or not I secured more than a ride 
to the shore and back. 

The crew of my tug threatened to leave before I 
returned, on the plea that they couldn't wait out there 
without any "chow" — food. I found that lack of 
"chow" would upset any bargains with natives. 

But a little firmness seemed to impress them and I 
felt easy. Mr. Fischer, however, said that it was 
extremely doubtful if we found the tug there when we 
wanted to return. 

But that was of little consequence. My task was 
to get ashore — not to return. Before we had proceeded 
far the rain descended in torrents, and although we 
huddled under our thatched roof we were soon drenched. 
I noted that the only one of my oarsmen who wore a 
shirt displayed one made from a gunny sack on the back 
of which appeared this inscription, "Swift's Hams are 
the best." That looked like home. I asked him if he 
could write and he showed me a letter which he was com- 
pleting. The handwriting was far better than mine. 
He attended school, but looked like an utterly illiterate 
savage. 

As we were paddling slowly to shore the talk of 
Fischer and myself dwelt upon some of his experiences 
as a governmental interpreter. My diary relates this : 

Upon one occasion, several years previous, a gentle- 
man who had been a native ofiicer in the ranks of the 
insurgents had called at the offices of our administra- 
tion in Manila and in a conversation between hina and 
one of our officers, which was interpreted by Mr. 
Fischer, my countryman had asked the late insurgent 
what sort of an experience he had had with the American 
soldiers. 

The native replied: 

"You didn't fight fair at all. Now, when we were 
fighting the Spaniards, it was fair on both sides. When- 
ever the two forces met, both dug trenches and threw 
up earthworks across the street. When this was done 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

each force would lie down and begin shooting at the 
other. That was fair. But you Americans would not 
lie down and the first thing we knew you were right on 
top of us ; and then we had to run. What could we do ? 
You didn't fight fair." 

We were directed to a large native house, sur- 
rounded by banana and cocoanut trees, and all enclosed 
by a high fence, within fifty yards of where we stepped 
ashore. The floor was set up on poles. The roof was 
made of nipa and, except that it was larger, the building 
was little better or larger than the average native hut. 
To our knock, an elderly native woman responded and 
said that Senor Aguinaldo was at home, but was prob- 
ably taking his siesta. It was just after noon, the usual 
resting time. I presented a letter of introduction from 
Buencamino, and we were invited into the front room, 
an enormous place. The only furnishings were a giant 
piano in one corner and several hand-carved cane- 
seated chairs. The ceiling was illumined with a large 
water-color decoration showing in the rays of the rising 
sun life-size figures, representing a Filipino maiden, 
waving the colors of the Filipino Republic, breaking the 
shackles of Spain and hurling the tyrant Spain from his 
throne. 

In five minutes, quick, springy, active steps, that 
sounded like American shoes and American alertness of 
action came along the corrider, and Aguinaldo was 
before me, holding in his hand my letter of introduction. 
He was dressed in a khaki suit of military cut, with no 
evidences of rank or military display. He is about five 
feet-five, with a coarse complexion, rather light. His 
hair is black, and worn after the Filipino fashion, in a 
pompadour style. His forehead is high; his cheek 
bones prominent, and his figure straight, erect, alert, 
well-composed, "well set up" as the army man would 
say, shows at once that he has been a solider. He 
bowed like a soldier, from his hips, and his hand-clasp 
was strong and firm. His countenance was open, his 
head erect, eyes square to the front, looking directly at 

190 




Aguinaldo in IdOJi- 



AGUINALDO 

the speaker. When he sat he held his body in the cor- 
rect mihtary posture, but always without effort. 

He said that he did not converse in English but 
in Spanish or Tagalog. 

He was frankly told that one of my chief reasons 
for coming to the Islands was to see him. 

I tried to draw him into a conversation upon per- 
sonal grounds, by a comparison of our ages, our occu- 
pations, our relative weights and height, but beyond 
always replying to direct questions, he conceded no 
interest. He said that he was thirty-five, and when I 
informed him of my age he merely bowed. He appeared 
to be waiting, as if well aware that I had come for some 
definite purpose that did not concern his height or his 
age or his farm. On the latter subject he confirmed 
Senor Rozales by saying that he was devoting all his 
time to that property, which now consisted of some five 
hundred acres. He also said that he had read some of 
the histories of the different countries of the world, but 
not many of them. If he is, as Senor Rozales said, a 
great reader, then he is modest, for he spoke as if he were 
only a casual student. 

He said that he had read our history and was 
familiar with that of Spain. 

After I had catechised him rather closely on such 
personal grounds as I have described, I laughingly asked 
him if he wouldn't like to ask me something, as that 
would only be fair. Without a change of face he 
replied that he did not care to ask me any questions. 
He would not respond to my attempt to be jovial. 

Then I broke the ice by asking him how the 
present schools in the Islands compared with those 
under Spain. He replied that he thought the old regime 
was better for the Filipino. 

His answers were very slowly spoken and it was 
clear that he carefully weighed each word. 

I asked if he had considered that, as the best known 
man of his race, the American people would like to hear. 



191 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DATS 

in some authoritative way, what he thought of our work 
in the Islands ; what, if any, recommendations he would 
suggest for the betterment of his people; and what, if 
anything, his people desired which they did not now 
have. I added that it seemed to me that a statement by 
him would be received with much attention by my people 
and might lead to direct results. 

He said that he had been advised against making 
any extended representations now. As for his ideas, 
they were known. What the Filipino wanted was 
independence. They had fought for it and that spoke 
louder than any mere writing he could issue. 

"Do you think that your people can conduct their 
own affairs now.?" 

"I do," he at last replied. "I believe that if we 
were given the opportunity to study the present govern- 
ment for a year, so that a Filipino could become familiar 
with the workings of each office held by Americans, we 
could, at the end of the period stated, successfully take 
over the administration of affairs and continue them as 
well as they are now conducted." 

"How would you favor," I asked him, "a scheme 
to give you just such a year's preparation as you have 
outlined, with the provision that if you maintained law 
and order and protected the natural rights of man in a 
reasonable degree for a period of five years, my country 
would withdraw at the end of that space of time ?" 

"All we want is the opportunity to try it" was his 
opinion. "That would give us all we could ask. It 
would settle every question." 

"Do you think," I inquired, "that your people can 
furnish competent men to replace, say, the members of 
the present Philippine Commission, the highest power 
in the Islands .?" 

"I believe we can, provided we are allowed full 
access to their offices during the year devoted to our 
preparation, and your people, in good faith, do every 
thing we think necessary to enable us to see how these 
various offices are conducted." 



192 



AQUINALDO 

"Is this your plan, or that of some party?" he 
asked. 

I explained that it was that of a number of us who 
had studied the question, and that we had decided to 
propose its adoption. Our thought was to ask his 
judgment of such a solution and then inform a certain 
high executive officer of what he said. 

"Let me know what he says," he responded, "and 
then, perhaps, I may issue a statement." 

I then said that any action of his in conjunction 
with what we called Anti-Imperialists in America was 
only hurting the cause of independence of the Filipino, 
not only in the islands but also in America. 

"Why.''" he asked, evidently much interested. 

"Because," I replied, "they are a set of men whose 
conduct on this question does not recommend them to 
us. We Americans are loyal at heart, and we do not 
accept advice from those who oppose us in time of war; 
and that is what these people have done. More than 
that, the Antis issued so many reckless statements 
that they had only succeeded in making themselves 
ridiculous in the eyes of the average of our citizens. 
To sum it all up, a statement of yours issued through 
these people would mean that you had chosen the very 
worst source in America from which your message 
could come, if you thought of moving the American 
people." 

"But isn't the Democratic party Anti-Imperial- 
istic.'*" he asked, earnestly. 

"No, except for political purposes. In a word the 
situation in my country, as I understand it, is this. 
Practically nobody desires to rule these Islands one^hour 
after you can do it yourselves. Nobody wants to make 
a colony of you. At heart the Republicans feel that 
way, and, at heart, there is no appreciable difference 
between the feelings of the average Republican and 
Democrat on this subject. They all want to assist you 
to be free. It is to the dominant party that you must 
look for any aid, at present. The Antis have no weight. 
They are discredited, and anything they may propose, 
193 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

no matter how meritorious it may appear, will, I fear, 
only anger those in control. The result of this is that 
those whom you have, I am told, regarded as your best 
friends, are, in effect, your worst enemies, if you are 
looking for results. If, then, you are to accomplish 
anything you must hitch up with the people who con- 
trol, not with a little knot of men to whom nobody will 
pay serious attention." 

,He listened very attentively. 

"Now, if at any time, you desire to issue a state- 
ment to the American people I shall be very glad to do 
what I can to have it placed before them in the way that 
will appear to obtain for it the best and fairest attention." 

"I may wish to do that," he replied, after some 
thought. "I shall consult my friends about it and then 
perhaps I may have something to say. But I hope you 

will write me and tell me what says to the plan to 

give us five years' trial to show what we can do." 

I replied that I would certainly tell him all that was 
proper; that my judgment of the official named was 
that he would be the first man to suggest such a scheme 
if he believed it to have a fair chance of success, and, as 
for the little influence I had, if indeed any at all, I should 
advise such a trial; and after my visit to the Islands I 
had formed the opinion, very carefully and slowly, that 
every oflficial we had in the Islands could be replaced 
by Filipinos and that the Islands contained men who 
could carry the scheme to a successful issue. 

Since the time of that interview, August 11th, 1904, 
ten months have passed. Continued reflection on the 
problem has only served to strengthen the conclusion 
reached in Luzon, as first stated. 

We then arose to take our leave. Aguinaldo asked 
kindly after Mr. Fischer's health and length of sojourn 
in the Islands, and when the latter said that he had come 
over as a soldier in 1898, Aguinaldo said "You may 
always have a home here in my house," a remark which 
is the extreme of Tagalog politeness. 

The native leader then presented me with his 

194 







-t^ 




AGUINALDO 

photograph, upon which he had written my name, his 
own, and the date. 

He then accompanied us to the door, said that he 
would be very glad to hear from me, that he wished me 
to visit him for a longer time if I returned to Luzon and 
then he hoped I would have a very pleasant voyage to 
the States. 

As I reached the street I looked back and found him 
still in the doorway. I lifted my hat and the last I saw 
of him was an answering wave of his hand. 



195 



CHAPTER XII 



THE LAST OF THE PHILIPPINES 



Friday, the twelfth of August, was my last day in 
the Islands. Except for several hours spent at the 
Government offices, and in making purchases, the day 
was passed on the Pasig, the muddy stream that runs 
through Manila from the Lake (Laguna de Bay) to 
Manila Bay, a distance of ten miles. 

I now possessed many souvenirs; which meant 
baggage. In my helplessness, I applied to the German 
porter of the Bay View, who had formerly served as a 
sergeant in our army. He had been kindness itself. 
I trusted him without question, and when he told me 
that it was almost impossible to purchase a trunk in 
Manila for less than $18.00 or $20.00 I groaned so that 
he said that to oblige me he would sell me a camphor- 
wood chest which he had for $10.00, which was far less 
than it had cost him, if that would help me. 

I looked at the box. It was just a plain, yellow 
affair three-quarters of an inch thick, without a bit of 
leather or metal to protect it. It might have been 
secured for $1.50 in America; but, of course, I took 
advantage of my exceptional opportunity, paid my 
$10.00 and thanked the stars that I was soon to get out 
of a robber country where one paid five or six times as 
much for conveniences as at home. 

Several hours later, on meeting Captain Sever, I 
told him of my good fortune in the trunk matter. He 
looked amused and informed me that Manila had boxes 
like mine on sale at every corner for $3.00. 

I was so angry that he compelled the thrifty Ger- 
man to rescind the operation and I secured a better 
box from a Chinaman for $2.50. 

Then there were our bills at the Bay View. I paid 
$6.00 per quart for the Mumms Extra Dry which my 

196 




One-eye 




On the Bank 




Washing the Dislies 




Tlie Laundry 



THE LAST OF THE PHILIPPINES 

friends drank and confessed was worse than $1.00 a 
quart American champagne. I paid $50.00 per week 
for our board, and $60.00 for carriage hire. 

Until there is a street railway system in Manila — 
which there will be soon, as it is in process of building — 
living in that city will be very costly. It certainly now 
costs a half more than much poorer accommodations 
in the States. 

What money I had left was converted into English 
sovei'eigns, except a small amount for immediate use in 
China of what is known as Hong Kong money, a species 




Contentment 

of English silver currency, on the "Mex" basis of fifty 
cents (approximate) to our dollar. 

This done, I impressed Captain Sever once more 
and together we rode to the Pasig, where he bargained for 
boat and crew to paddle me about by the hour. 

I was provided with a rude topless canoe, free of 
outriggers, and a crew of three — a steersman, who used 
a huge paddle at the stern and two oarsmen who pulled 
hand-made oars. The two latter are shown in one of 
the pictures, and I so disliked and distrusted the one- 
eyed man that I did not take my eyes from him when 
197 



AROUJSfD THE WORLD i:^ mNETY BAYS 

within his reach, nor did I feel safe until the trip was 
over. 

For these accommodations I paid half a dollar an 
hour, American money. 

The accompanying pictures will give an idea of 
what can be daily seen on the Pasig. 

Several miles from my starting place, I was rowed 
along beside some rice fields. 

Rice is the staple food of the Orient. To the 




A Honolulu Rice Field 



average American, this is beyond comprehension. He 
is likely to believe that no civilized man can constantly 
eat rice any more than he could eat — well, macaroni. 

From the little experience I had in the Orient, and 
from conversations with those who have longer tarried 
there, I deem it safe to conclude that the prejudice of 
our people against this food is due more to our ignorance 
than to anything else, or to be definite, it is due to our 



THE LAST OF THE PHILIPPINES 

failure to know how to cook it so that it becomes pala- 
table. 

In a word, we make a mash, a half-paste of rice 
that would be a first rate emetic for a Chinaman. He, 
on the other hand, cooks it with little water and the 
kernals are solid and separate. So prepared it has flavor 
and is attractive to the average appetite. As for the 
other properties of this staple, too much in favor of it 
could scarcely be recorded. 

In the voyage to the Far East, the rice fields, or 
"paddies," as they are frequently called, first appear 




The Caraboa at Rest 



at Honolulu. The Philippines are full of them. 

Nothing is now recalled, the American cultivation 
of which suggests the manner of raising rice, unless it 
be that of pond lilies, or frogs. 

At first, rice culture commences with the strewing 
of the raw kernels over a small plot of dry ground. In 
a month these sprout and the young plant is some six 
inches high. 

Then the rice planter ploughs his paddy. This is 
a field surrounded by banks which are about three or 
199 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

four feet high and broad enough on top to permit of 
passage along them by the ploughmen and their caraboas. 

This operation, as I saw it usually conducted, would 
make an American stand aghast. 

An ox, in America, is an express train in comparison 
with the earaboa. The latter, it is to be remembered, 
is the only beast of burden in the Philippines, the only 
animals that farmers yet use in their tilling. He is, if 
one judges from his habits, half-ox and half-hippo- 
potamus. He will stay upon dry land until he can 
escape to a mudpuddle — but no longer. 




He watches the Camera 

Captain Sever, of the Manila police force, said to 
me once that if anybody ever saw a earaboa drawing a 
Filipino at the usual rate of speed — which must be 
fully a half-mile an hour — he would never doubt the 
wisdom displayed by the Almighty in giving one to the 
other. It is perfectly plain that neither man nor beast 
desires to arrive at any destination any sooner than it 
appears likely that he will. But sometime — soon or 
late, the earaboa completes his task, for he is steady, 
patient and tireless. 

200 





__ ^ 


H^ 


^^jgSS^BK^H 


HH 


i^^^^^^^3lBllBE 


rf^^j- 


^ ^s^^'TJlp*''''-- '^^'^'^^^^^ 


m 


^^^P 



Ploughing his Paddy 




Harrowing it 




Planting the Sprouts 




Cultivating Rice 



THE LAST OF THE PHILIPPINES 

Well, the Filipino uses a forked stick and this 
animal for his ploughing. The soil is mud, soft and 
slimy, into which one sinks half to the knee at every step. 

The ploughing done, the native exchanges a harrow 
for the plow and again wades in his puddle. 

If the water is less than six inches in depth, he lets 
in more which he turns usually from a stream through 
a place in the bank until the entire field is flooded 
to the depth mentioned. 

Next, he takes a handful of his new sprouts, sets 
them upright in the muddy bottom, so that their tops 
just appear above the surface of the water, and then, 
proceeding in as straight a line as possible, he builds 
perhaps a dozen rows, depositing say six sprouts 
in each for every ten or twelve inches of his journey 
down the length of the field. At the end he turns and 
constructs as many more rows beside the first lot and 
so on — until the entire lake is planted. 

Now, all he has to do is to keep the weeds out, and 
to see that his water supply always covers the roots of 
his plants. It is probably the easiest and surest crop to 
grow that there is and in the Philippines and in the 
Sandwich Islands, women do the larger part of the 
cultivating. 

Rice has no enemies except a gale of wind. 

In four or five months the sprouts are three feet 
high and a light green in color. As they ripen they turn 
yellow like sunburned hay. Then is the harvest 
time and the owner and his helpers invade the field with 
the sickles and soon the yellow grain is piled up and 
ready for winnowing — the operation by which the rice 
kernels that grow in clusters upon long spindles, like 
wheat, are separated from the stalks and prepared for 
domestic uses. 

As a rule rice yields two crops per year. One 
month is consumed between these crops by the sprouting 
and the ploughing. It is unusual to refresh the soil 
except by water. 

In the Hawaiian Islands, it is common to secure 



201 



AROUND THE WOULD ly NINETY DAYS 

$125 gross per acre for marketing the crop, where Ameri- 
can ploughs and intelligent labor are employed, but such 
a result is reported as rare in the Philippines, although 
there is little doubt but that the yield there can be in- 
creased by more intelligent attention. 

I returned to the city in the early evening, after 
calling upon Major-General Wade, the commanding 
officer of the Division of the Philippines, at his residence, 
where I found him holding a veritable court, so sur- 
rounded was he by admiring women and gentlemen. 

It was my last night in the Philippines and the rain 
was as heavy as any I had yet seen. 



202 



CHAPTER XIII 



Saturday morning, x\ugust 13, I left the Philippines 
at 10.30, on the "Rubi," a small English steamer 
plying between Manila and Hong Kong. We carried 
twenty-one cabin passengers and one hundred and 
seventy-five Chinamen, on the deck. Of that voyage I 
shall say little, save that it was the most uncomfortable 
experience I have ever had on the sea. The only merci- 
ful features were a temperature of but about 70° and a 
strong head-wind which necessitated the use of blankets 
at night. By one-thirty on Saturday I was abed with 
seasickness, and I was not again on deck until we were 
in sight of Hong Kong, on the following Monday noon, 

Tliis ship — as are all Oriental European steamers 
— was provided with punkas, or heavy cloth screens, 
suspended above the centre of the dining-room tables. 
By an arrangement of ropes and pulleys, a boy seated oii 
the carpet outside the dining-room may cause each or 
any of these huge fan-like arrangements to wave back 
and forth through the air, thus creating a sensible breeze, 
and naturally adding very materially to the causes of 
seasickness. 

In the second class were a horde of Chinese, crowds 
of whom always seem to carry with them an odor that 
is peculiar, distinctive, pungent and almost unbearable. 

These poor people were treated like so many dogs. 
They were pushed, knocked and pulled about as I have 
never seen other members of the human family treated, 
and they certainly hved in a state of nudity, of privation, 
and of general barbarity that is almost inconceivable. 
How human beings can endure such nauseous air, such 
food, such odors, such hardships, and live, — is not for 
me to comprehend. 

203 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

I took a picture of a group as I lay in my berth, 
sighting through one of my two port -holes. 

The China Sea, between the Philippines and China 
is all choppy and the gyrations indulged in by the 
"Rubi" were wonderful. 

Monday noon, land being in sight, I emerged. 
From all I have heard I presume that the harbor of 
Hong Kong is the most beautiful in the world. It is also 
the largest seaport in the world, a statement that will 
probably surprise most of you who have followed us thus 
far. 




Through my Port-hole 

More than fifty steamers, flying every flag under the 
stars, enter the harbor each day in the year. In total 
annual tonnage of entrances and clearances. Hong Kong 
surpasses New York and London by over half a million 
tons, and Liverpool by over five million. 

It must be twenty miles from the lofty entrances of 
Hong Kong harbor to the anchorage. This narrow 
channel is bounded on either side by green high- 
lands, that tower hundreds of feet, precipitously, 
above the waters edge. 

204 



''P'*?^ 




Approaching Hong Kong 




Junks and Hotel Launches 





Nearing our Buoy 




The Engines Stop 



CHINA 

As the city comes into view one sees that the busi- 
ness is done beside the waters in rows of tall white 
business blocks. Sharply rising, in back of them, on the 
slopes, are the smaller trade marts of similar color; 
while beyond them all, nestled here and there against 
the green foliage of the mountain sides are hundreds of 
the white homes of the prosperous. 

The architecture is very ornamental, and the build- 
ings consist of windows with as little wall as possible. 




We em'ployed this one 

As we approached the buoy the hotel launches 
could be seen heading out, to bespeak our patronage. 
Close beside them came other conveyances — sampans 
— whose proprietors also bid for business. 

If you will look closely at the picture of the sampan 

you will see that both the "oarsmen" are women and 

that each of them carries a little baby strapped to her 

back. I have seen it stated that fully fifty thousand 

205 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




The Savipan 




Shopping at Hong Kong 

206 



CHINA 

Chinese live in these sampans in Hong Kong harbor all 
their lives. 

Here in Hong Kong we first became acquainted with 
the jinrickashaw. A score of them, drawn by huge, 
five-foot-ten, muscular, splendidly formed Chinamen, 
clad only in short overalls that were rolled up to the hips 
and extended upward only as far as the waist, awaited 
us. 

Hong Kong is a surprise. It is a splendid European 
city in Asia. Its streets are of asphalt — and wide; 
its buildings are of handsome stones or of brick. There 
are many church spires, trolley cars, arc lights, and 
theatres; a library, a museum, clubs that are luxurious, 
splendid large stores, in which the Chinaman who speaks 
English is not out, and hotels with the accommodations 
of London and Paris. There is also a daily journal 
containing news from all over the world. 

As "The Hongkong" is situated only a minute's 
walk from the dock, we walked there and I found Mrs. 
Chamberlin well and quite restored to health. She 
had slept each night since leaving Manila, had visited 
Canton, and was now shopping for our departure on the 
"Preussen" Wednesday morning at ten, the seventeenth 
of August, for Naples, and home. 

The Hongkong Hotel is big, of solid granite or 
similar stone, six stories high, with surely four hundred 
rooms. Its hallways, reception rooms and parlors, 
dining room, etc., are very large, as are also the guest 
rooms. Only a lattice door, so hung that it prevents 
any view of the body from the knees to the top of one's 
head, divides the rooms from the hallway, so cai-efully 
are all draughts and breezes cultivated. All servants 
are Chinese men. The first thing a guest does — man 
or woman — upon entering his or her room, in the Far 
East, is to throw off all unnecessary clothing and thus 
remain until it be required to make a sortie. As a con- 
sequence, all hotel servants were, long before our arrival, 
surfeited with the beauties of the form of the Caucasian 
race of both sexes; and a number of ladies, who like 
those of our immediate party, were new to this part of 
207 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

the world, agreed that whether they had on any clothing 
or not, none of the men servants seemed at all interested. 
So that modesty is not at all proportionate to the amount 
of clothing one wears — in Asia. 

Jungenfeld, the noted engineer, who joined us at 
Guam, had come on the "Rubi" with me, and he now 
took me shopping for clothing. I expected a very hot 
trip to Europe, for we were to go within a single degree 
of the equator, and pass through the Red Sea, — the 
horror of all travelers, — in the month of September 
the worst month of the year for that trip. 

Walking out, I found the mountain back of the city 
began to rise within a hundred yards of the water. My 
big German friend advised the purchase of a dozen white 
linen suits at $1.50 apiece. The Chinaman said he 
would deliver them at the hotel in twenty-four hours. 
That would surprise an American or English tailor, I 
fancy. 

I did not accept the advice but purchased a helmet 
for $1.50 and a suit of khaki for $2.00; also some of the 
thinnest underwear. 

Shopping in the East is a gamble with far more 
chance to it than is afforded by roulette, baccarat or 
poker. The merchant never expects you to pay what he 
asks. He therefore proceeds upon the theory that the 
more he asks the more he will eventually obtain, as he 
can regretfully reduce his price enormously — so the 
buyer believes — and when that is done, the unitiated 
customer leaps at the bargain seemingly offered and pays 
two or three times a fair price. But when, to the ex- 
hilaration of a horse trade every time a purchase is made, 
you also add the attraction that an American feels at the 
knowledge that the price asked is in "Mex." — which is 
cheap compared with our similar retail price at home — 
and is therefore to be divided in halves, no Yankee can 
be sensible long enough to keep his pocketbook closed. 
He has far less than a fair chance. 

The cork helmet I found the coolest hat I have tried 
for summer wear. Upon occasions when I have been in 
the sun for long periods with the thermometer at 100° 
208 



CHINA 

Fahr., a little breeze, too slight to cool the body, would 
keep the head cool and entirely free from perspiration. 
There is an open space, between the leather band that 
fits to the head and the helmet proper, of fully half an 
inch, which allows a free circulation of air. Moreover, 
the hat does not weigh more than one or two ounces, 
although it may be very large, and as it is white, it 
diffuses rather than collects the heat rays. 

At a few moments before nine we hurried to jin- 
rickashaws and I took my first ride in the famous 
vehicle, in the light of a paper Chinese lantern dangling 
from a long flexible stick like the top of a bamboo fishing 
pole, which the human horse jauntily carried. Ten 
cents I paid for the quarter mile of running my huge 
fellow did with me, and we travelled at the rate, I judge, 
of seven miles an hour. 

Our steamer was as good as one finds on the Hud- 
son, here at home, and Jungenfeld and I had a state 
room, as the captain's guests, fully twenty feet by fifteen. 

Between decks were hundreds of Chinese of both 
sexes. I hope you who read this may all see such a sight. 
It will astound yovi. About half an hour after we had 
left our moorings, I started to go below, but on arriving 
at the top of the gangway which led into the very midst 
of the Chinese passengers I was met by such an odor 
that I had to retire or be ill. Upon speaking to an 
Englishman in the crew he said that the way to do was to 
go right down and that after I had been there a minute I 
would not mind it very much. Was it safe for me to go 
alone ? Yes, only I was to be careful and not offend 
anybody. 

Accordingly, I hurried down and finding that the odor 
was not half as bad when in it as on its edge, I regained 
confidence and moved about, but always within running 
distance of the stairway. I tried several little' excursions 
but always returned to the stairway for safety. Such a 
sight, I suppose, can be seen in the Orient only. 

Over five hundred Chinese, clad only in trousers, 
rolled or pulled to the hips, lay at full length or sat on 
their heels on the deck. A large number lay on small 
209 



AROUND THE WORLD IX NINETY DAYS 

cloth mats which they carried in their luggage. Some 
were alone, some in groups. Many were preparing for 
eating supper. There was rice, with chop sticks, and 
strange dishes the hke of which I never saw. All the 
others were preparing or smoking opium from huge 
mouthed bamboo pipes. Scores of little flames from 
spirit lamps one of which each smoker always has about, 
were dotting the scene with their bright colors. Be- 
side them, on their sides, lay the greasy, shiny, dark- 
skinned Chinaman watching with avidity the effects of 
the flames on the contents of their pipes. All steps of 
the process of smoking were exhibited. Many were just 
beginning to cook the drug into a soft, pliable putty, 
which they carefully packed into their pipes. Some 
had settled down on their backs — a number of them 
with feet high in the air on some merchandise — ready 
for the coming of the beautiful dreams that were sure 
visitors. Some were already fast asleep, in all positions 
imaginable, but always those of the very deep sleeper. 
The temperature must have been fully 95° Fahr. and 
the perspiration ran down my cheeks and dropped to 
the floor. 

As soon as supper was finished the dishes were 
emptied into the river, and the owners joined the ranks 
of opium smokers. 

In the stern were the female quarters, and there 
were about a hundred women in cambric trousers that 
came to the knees and a loose waist of similar material, 
unattached at the waist. There was a bench in their 
pen upon which many could lie, or sit, but the large 
majority, as were all the men, were obliged to lie on the 
bare deck. 

There were no aisles. I had to step over body after 
body, and you may be sure that I did it carefully, for 
the glances cast at me were, as a rule, not of a friendly 
character. 

As I was standing over one group of four, all pre- 
paring opium at a single lamp, I was surprised to see a 
middle-aged Chinaman look up, saying, "Have smoke .''" 

I was so astonished that I did not reply directly, 
210 



CHIXA 

but asked, "Have you been in the United States?" 

"Yes, in Chicago. We had laundry there five 
year go." 

"Did you get rich ?" 

" Yes, me no have work now. My wife over there," 
and he pointed at a trousered young lady squatting 
behind his recumbent form. He lay on his left side, 
and watched keenly his opium as he held the bowl of the 
pipe with his right hand to the blaze. I sat down on the 
deck in the midst of the groujs, who eyed me with great 
curiosity, especially my clothing. 

" Opium .^" I asked. 

"Yes." 

"What makes you smoke it.^" 

"Makes dream." 

" Pleasant dreams ? " 

"Yes, always pleasant." 

"Every day .^" 

" Yes — want smoke ? " 

I laughed outright. " No, thank you." He smiled. 

In the few minutes we talked he informed me that 
the States were a good place for his people to make money 
but no place for them to live, owing to the fact that my 
countrymen "no like Chinaman." I smiled and replied 
that surely his people "no like Melican;" and then he 
smiled. We decided that we could hardly settle the 
Chinese question right then nor talk about it with any 
profit. 

Considering the odors which arose from many 
sources, the most annoying from unmentionable causes, 
that deck was the most disgusting place in which I have 
ever spent any time. 

The common Chinese are regarded as mere beasts 
— like so many cattle — by the Europeans who dwell 
there, if my judgment is not at fault. In entering and 
leaving ship they are kicked, slapped, pounded, pulled 
by the ears, cues, driven here, knocked there into the 
pens intended for them. 

From the rest of the ship after the first hour or so, 
they are debarred by iron grates. This is to prevent 
211 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

their seizing the ship, for, of course, they could over- 
whelm all resistance if they could once gain an ad- 
vantageous lodgement. The Caucasian officers' cabins 
are more or less small arsenals, and the natives are never, 
for a moment, even, given any opportunity by seizing 
which they could gain control. 

My companion carried two huge revolvers while I 
had a smaller one which I later found would not work at 
all. I alone had brought a camera, as Jungenfeld said 




Approaching Canton 



that the most dangerous thing a Caucasian could do in 
Canton was to attempt to take photographs, owing to 
the universal dislike of the Chinese to being snapped. 
This same advice, as usual, increased my interest and 
resulted in the purchase of an exceptional number of 
films. 

It was hotter that night than any I had spent at 
Manila, but sleep provided some rest. At 5.00 A..M., I 
was dressing. We were nearing the greatest city of 
212 



CHINA 

Asia, the market to which converge all the products of 
the huge celestial empire. 

The Canton River is narrow, say two hundred yards, 
and winding. The surrounding country is flat. 

The harbor of Canton, merely a place in the river, 
was crowded with craft. There were a score of European 
steamers of fair dimensions in view; but the large 
majority of the shipping were hundreds and hundreds of 
sampans — slipper-boats, they are often called, so like 
that article do they appear, with a high heel and a low 




In the Harbor of Canton 



toe. These diminutive things average a length of 
twenty feet, covered over, except for six feet of the bow, 
with two bamboo shelters; and it is in these close ac- 
commodations, it is estimated, over five hundred 
thousand souls live constantly, setting foot on land 
only at very rare intervals. The only motive power for 
these boats is that supplied by a very long stern oar, and 
sometimes a shorter one forward; and usually women 
do the rowing. The most of these women, too, I think 
it conservative to say, had babies strapped astride of their 
213 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

backs as they worked. Older children, still too young 
to be free, and too large to be carried by the mother, 
were tied about the waists, like so many little chained 
monkeys, by a strong rope which hung from the roof. 

Mile after mile, along the river banks, and in the 
canal, which divides the European settlement from that 
containing the natives, these river boats, choke up the 
stream till only a small portion of it remains open — in 
the centre — for the passage of heavier traffic. 

Like so many vultures they swoop down upon their 
pi'ey, the newly arrived steamer, and with strange, eager 
cries, struggle, fight and manoeuvre for advantageous 
positions from which to seek opportunity to ferry pas- 
sengers to their destination. 

We employed two women of some thirty years to 
row us to a small steamer that would carry us further up 
stream where my companion had business. Both 
women carried babies on their backs as they struggled 
with the oars. These women wore only two garments, 
a loose jacket with large sleeves and a pair of trousers 
that stopped about half-way from the knee to the ankle. 
Both of these garments were made of what appeared to 
be dark brown cambric, so thin that all the lines of the 
body and limbs could be plainly seen in certain lights. 

I secured the picture on the preceding page which 
will show fairly well a suggestion of what a hurly-burly 
appearance the river front presents. 

Mr. Ah Kow, who makes his headquarters at the 
Victoria, the European hotel in Canton, met the boat 
soon after its arrival and was at once reserved as our 
guide for the day. This gentleman speaks English 
plainly, is evidently a man of considerable learning, and 
is the best known guide in the city. He does all your 
business for you, arranges everything upon as cheap a 
plan as possible, as far as I could judge, and is strictly 
honest and trustworthy. He is clearly a gentleman, 
quiet, patient, polite, anxious to make travelers com- 
fortable. I found a number of high recommendations 
of him from many famous people, but none other car- 

214 



CHINA 

ried quite as much weight as did one which I found 
signed Frances M. Chamberhn. 

Ah Kow's own fee for the day was only $2.00. 

We ascended the river in a ferry-boat that ran as 
rapidly as the little boats on the Seine, to the offices of 
a prominent American business house. Here I met a 
number of wrecks of my countrymen. They were 
sallow, just able to move with great effort, all energy 
gone, hollow-eyed, thin, narrow-chested and stoop- 
shouldered — cause, living in Canton. At nine o'clock. 




The Author s Out ft 

when we turned back, the atmosphere was 99° Fahr. 
in the shade. 

On this little voyage we passed numerous boats of 
the slipper shape — but larger than the family boats — 
propelled from behind by a huge paddle-wheel which was 
slowly revolved by a dozen treading men confined inside 
of it, who wore only trousers, turned up to the hips, and 
from whom the perspiration ran in streams. 
215 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

Returning to our point of departure, we found three 
sedan chairs, with three coohes for each of us. The 
details of the outfit are fairly well shown in a picture of 
the author, which was taken several hours later at the 
Five-story Pagoda, of which mention will be made later. 

The sedan chair is very steady, but requires one to 
sit in balance, and of course, quietly, if he be apprecia- 
tive of the bare shoulders of the coolies. The chair is 
allowed to rest on its base until the passenger is seated 
within, when it is carefully raised by the coolies with 
several preparatory grunts or groans — the latter is 
nearer to the real sound — and the conveyance is set on 
the ground before a passenger alights. Over the right 
shoulder of the wheel-horse — the thin old man who 
grasps the side of the ship — is to be seen the linen towel 
carried by all chair-coolies with which, at frequent inter- 
vals, they dry their reeking bodies. Reeking is the 
proper term, certainly, from the experience of my men 
on this day when the heat must have exceeded 110° 
Fahr. in the sun, for it was not less than 99° in the shade, 
until after six o'clock that evening. This elderly man 
also wore a pair of sandals, tied with ropes. The others 
were barefooted.. 

Then began the most wonderful day of my life. 
That Canton is the show place of all the world, all 
famous travelers seem to agree. No Caucasian lives 
within its gates. We foreign devils reside on an island 
by ourselves, to which no Chinaman is admitted after 
sundown, under any consideration. The 2,500,000 of 
natives reside by themselves, and no Caucasian would 
dare remain in their midst, even if it were allowed. 
Into flat, stone-paved streets, not over eight feet wide, 
crowded with people, a great bee-hive, the market-place, 
the produce exchange of a nation more than five times 
as populous as ours, my sedan chair was carried with 
soft pattering feet stepping quickly — but not running — 
at a pace that could have made four miles an hour. We 
were in a forest of vertical signs. I could obtain in 
Canton only one picture that shows a street — and that 
is really one of the side courts in which the city abounds. 
216 




Side Street in Canton 



CHINA 

We went through the busiest streets. To keep a 
space for our passage, our coolies indulged in a strange 
guttural sound, half-groan, half-grunt which notified all 
far ahead that we were coming. At times the odors 
were almost overwhelming. I saw nothing to indicate 
the presence of a sewer, and I presume there is nothing 
of that character in any city administered by the Chinese. 

If one were to draw a picture of hell he might very 
well use Canton for a model. 

The buildings are usually three-story affairs, whose 
proximity prevents anything but a dim light, except for 
a few minutes each day, descending to the lower story. 

The first floor, a few inches above the street, is 
entirely open to the passers-by, the building having no 
front wall in that story. In the half-light that pervades 
these shops, are many shiny, dark-skinned, barebacked 
fellows, whose clothing is not visible. Some lie about in 
odd postures. Others work, seated on the floor about 
little spirit lamps. Still others work high toward the 
ceiling, on little niches. Artificers pound on diminutive 
anvils. A strange tongue, that conveys no meaning, is 
babbling in many keys. 

All is indistinct, confused, except the sputtering 
flames. 

In the street you are often scowled at and plainly 
execrated. These people dislike to be edged about and 
pinned against some merchant's counter strewn with 
strange fish and odd meats, while they wait until your 
chair has passed. Only once or twice did I receive re- 
sponsive smiles to the one which greeted any face that 
pleased me. The children regarded us about as our 
children look at the elephant in the circus parade, gazing 
in rapt attention as long as we were in sight. But of 
the grown people, many grimaced at me and shouted 
derisively to their fellows. 

Before we left the river front. Ah Kow told me that I 
must not, under any consideration, stop to photograph 
anybody or halt for any purpose at all. To do so would 
be A'ery dangerous, and nothing could save my life for 
more than a minute. There were no Caucasians, he 



AROUND TEE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

explained, within helping distance; I was simply in the 
midst of millions of these people who disliked and 
despised me, and would like nothing better than to tear 
me literally limb from limb. 

I had confidence, however, and took pictures as 
fast as I could manipulate the machine. While we were 
plodding along, as a rule those who saw the camera 
pointed at them turned their faces, or made up new ones 
that were not half as attractive as the ones I had desired ; 
while one kind gentleman snatched at the camera. I 
happened to be looking at the right place, however, when 
he did it, and I easily threw up his arm ; and we were 
beyond him. 

Upon several occasions I stopped the chair and took 
a careful snap where I was particularly anxious to pre- 
serve the scene. 

I took six dozen views in these narrow Canton 
streets. In every instance I was moving, or the object 
was, and usually both were. That, of course, called 
for instantaneous work and so poor was the light that 
no one shows anything worthy of a place here, so you 
may know they are of no value at all. 

This is one of the greatest disappointments of the 
whole trip. No good kodak pictures, so far as I know, 
have ever come out of Canton's most interesting streets. 
I do not see how any can, so long as the present build- 
ings remain where they now are. By a long stay there, 
which I should regard with much less favor than I should 
a sentence to be hung to-morrow at daybreak, a few 
pictures might be procured each day when the sun was 
at the proper height over the scene you wished to fix. 
Some traveler may go to that amount of trouble some 
day, but I believe nobody has yet done so. 

In the midst of these streets, Mrs. Chamberlin, Mrs. 
Kidston, her daughter and husband had alighted to buy 
crockery. Within five minutes the whole vicinity was 
choked with eager sightseers and the proprietor and 
employees of the place had all they could do to keep the 
mob out of the shop; but no violence was offered. 

In the Far East, the motto is "Trust a Chinaman, 
218 



CHINA 



distrust a Jap." The word of a Chinese merchant is 
regarded as good as his bond. But that of a Japanese is 
regarded as bad as his bond, and his bond is always pre- 
sumed to be bad. The Chinaman is credited with being 
fair and square. The Jap is credited with trickery and 
deceit. 

As an illustration of how the application of such 
rules is not always to be relied upon, Mrs. Chamberlin 
carefully selected a large number of pieces of crockery 
in one of these crazy Canton shops, and paid for them, 




Temple of Five Hundred Buddhas 

the merchant promising to pack them for safe journey to 
America and send them to our steamer at Hong Kong. 
Nothing was broken upon the arrival of the crate, but 
Mrs. Chamberlin admits that the pieces she unpacked in 
our home were quite unlike, both in identity and value, 
to those she had actually purchased. 

Once free of the crowded centre of the city, we 
came to a little park upon one side of which was the 
temple of the Five Hundred Buddhas. I thought I 
had discovered a good light at last and I tried to snap 
several views, but the gathering of a scowling crowd 
219 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAY8 

and Ah Kow's solemn warning that I would get every- 
body into trouble, prevented my success. Some vigor- 
ous expletives from the big German with the eight- 
inch barrel revolvers in his hip pockets also contributed 
to my discomforture. This temple is one of the things 
always visited, but entirely uninteresting, containing 
about the number designated of images of the god 
of the Asiatic. 

A flock of begging children who evidently roosted 
somewhere about till a white man appeared, here 
attacked us, and we continued our journey through an 
hundred ragamuffins, all holding up their hands for 
money. Once outside the temple, as my friends were 
stepping into their conveyances, I began to give a little 
and instantly there was a mad struggle to secure posi- 
tions near me. I liked the fun, despite Jungenfeld's 
cussing, and Ah Kow's remonstrances that it was 
dangerous. He insisted that we must hurry before a 
crowd gathered; and we started away. That is, my 
companions did. 

But when my coolies tried to raise me, they could 
not, for a score of those little beggars had restraining 
hands on eveiy presentable feature of my chair. The 
coolies shouted and, I judge, swore a good deal, struck 
at the boys, who were probably fifteen years of age on 
the average — and there was a din, that started toward 
me the loungers from the houses on every side of the 
square. The passers-by halted. Twenty hands were 
thrust into my face, begging for money. My coat 
was tugged by a number, iny camera seized. My 
coolies were in a panic. They struggled to lift my 
chair; but to no purpose. My two friends were out 
of sight. I was alone. It flashed over me as I saw 
men hurrying toward me from every side that in two 
minutes more I should be in the midst of an hundred 
Chinamen in their own city, with nothing to guard 
me from their hatred but my own devices and six 
shots in my revolver. The men who had run up did 
not appear to be trying to relieve my predicament, 
as I had hoped they would. I became convinced 
220 



CHINA 

that they were abetting those who were keeping me. 

I had no time to spare. From a side-pocket in 
my coat in which I had kept my hand on my money 
as soon as the mob began to reach for it, I drew a whole 
handful of change of little value — probably not over 
a couple of dollars in all — and threw the shining 
silver high into the air above the heads of those in the 
very centre of the mob on my right, kicked — yes, 
I'm ashamed of it yet, but I did it — kicked the poor 
skinny old coolie in front of me, right in the middle of 
his bare back, and yelled at him as if he were a quarter 
of a mile away. The crowd fairly dove for that silver. 
Every mother's son of them, I believe, without ex- 
ception, lowered his head, pointed it toward the place 
where that silver would fall and sprang blindly toward 
that spot. 

Ha! I was up! Before the silver had fairly 
touched the ground, and before a Chinaman was on 
his feet, my coolies had me ten feet away. This time 
we were running. I looked back and there were 
twenty fights if there was one, to wrest the coins from 
those who had secured them. Half the crowd was 
still on the ground. 

That evening Jungenfeld, who was grumpy all 
the latter part of the day, said to me as we neared 
Hong Kong, " Chamberlin, I was pretty mad at you 
to-day and you might as well know it. That was a 
perfect damn fool of a thing you did there at the Five 
Hundred Temple. Every one of us might have lost 
his life there in less than five minutes. Of course, 
we'd have got some of them with our gvms, but we 
never'd got away in God's world. I'm willing to 
stand by a fellow, of course, and I would have done 
it there; but there's no use in kicking up a mess just 
for the sake of it." 

I'm no sort of a fellow to thresh over old straw. 
I had the time of my life and I wouldn't quarrel — so 
I bought him a fresh bottle and after a few minutes 
he was as happy as if he had never been angry at all. 
That's always the way with a big German. Give 
221 




Before the Temple 




Mr. Ah Kow 

222 



CHINA 

him a schooner of beer and he's all right; the score is 
erased and he's only in the present. 

On several occasions we halted at different other 
religious affairs but they were utterly uninteresting. 

One picture shows our chairs and coolies resting 
in front of the gate in one of them. 

The place called "The Temple of the Dead," 
however, was beautiful and interesting. Before the 
definite interment of the departed, he is encased in a 
casket similar to those we employ for such purposes, 
and taken to this place. A room is assigned to his 
relatives, in the rear of which is an alcove containing 
the body. In the centre of the first room is a table on 
which food and delicacies are placed for the delecta- 
tion of his friends and relatives who chance to drop in 
for a pleasant hour. M\. of these rooms open into a 
walk that is lined with flowers; and the general effect 
is that of a huge garden that is very beautifully and 
artistically arranged, an effect which even obliterates 
the realization of the abomination of the custom. 

As we turned to leave, and you may imagine we 
did not follow the habit of our yellow Caucasians 
and stay for tea or cakes, I accidentally thought of 
taking Ah Kow as he appears in an archway near 
the entrance. On glancing through one of John L. 
Stoddard's books of travel in China, I am flattered to 
see that he had a similar idea — for he took the same 
guide in the same place. 

After about an hour's ride from these scenes, 
we found ourselves at the very outskirts of the city 
and slowly we were taken up many stone steps until 
we could overlook the great town beneath. Here I 
made a photograph of it. It is ten miles to the Nine- 
story Pagoda which appears against the sky far 
beyond the city, in the picture on the next page. 

The Five-story Pagoda was where we had prom- 
ised ourselves the lunch which Ah Kow had ordered 
to be sent by a coolie from our steamer. 

In the numerous block-houses on the wall, 
like the one in the foreground of the picture, strange, 
223 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




The Roof of Canton 




The Five-story Pagoda 
224 



CHINA 

old, beautifully green sheathed, bronze cannon sit, 
silent, grim messengers of old days. 

There was nothing in the old building except the 
floor and stairways, and but for the view, there's no 
reason why any white man should ever visit it. The 
yard, however, is interesting, as the pictures exhibit, 
aside from the portraits. I had to hire my coolies, 
by giving them ten cents each, to stand without hitch- 




Jungenfeld at the Pagoda 

ing to have their pictures taken with me, for the moment 
they saw Jungenfeld point the gun toward them they 
dropped and turned away their faces, which, in truth, 
would have been a real improvement. 

Once more we disappeared in the bedlam of the 
market-places. All of the wares we saw were strange. 
I doubt if I could have told a use to which a third of 
them might be devoted. 

225 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

My camera refusing to work well, Ah Kow took 
us to the shop of a native photographer in a quiet 
alley. I was shown up three flights of stairs to a hole 
under the roof which was used as a dark room. This 
room was not over six feet square or high, and had no 
window or ventilation of any kind — and recollect 
the heat was 100° in the shade. But in there I went and 
heard the door shut after me. 

I remained fully half an hour and I have no desire 




The Canton Canal 



to repeat the experience. Darkness leads to such 
strange thoughts that I had many a nightmare while 
thus incarcerated. You may be sure that had I known 
as much of the films which I was trying to preserve 
as I do now, my stay in that box would have been of 
far less duration. 

The dress of a middle or best class Chinaman 
seems to me to be unquestionably the coolest and 
most comfortable and at the same time sufficient for 
226 



CHINA 

Caucasian ideas of propriety, that I have ever seen or 
imagined. 

It consists solely of sandals, silk hose, no under- 
clothing, very loose, wide, linen or silk trousers and 
jacket, a silk skull-cap, a paper parasol, and a fan. 

For the cap and parasol I should substitute the 
cork helmet. Otherwise I do not see how the costume 
can be improved. It is modest, free, open to the air, 
and so light that one could scarcely be cooler if it were 
not worn at all. 




Women carrying Wood 

I called upon our Consul-General, McWade, for an 
unusual favor and he aided me in every way he could. 

In the European Concession, there was another 
world. There were parks, and broad avenues lined 
with row on row of huge trees. There were costly 
consulates, asphalt walks, green lawns, polo fields, 
luxurious clubs, splendid flower gardens. Apparently 
all had been done that human mind could devise to 
227 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

mitigate the awful climate. But despite all these 
efforts, the fact of the unhealthiness of the place for 
a white man forced itself upon the observer. I saw 
no white person who looked as if he thought life were 
worth the drawing of even one more breath. 

Arrived at the steamer, we took our stations aft, 
under an awning, secured some ice-cool beverages 
and, buoyed up by the certainty of immediately leaving 
the place, we were fairly comfortable. In came a 
rather portly looking Chinaman, dressed all in silk. 
With much grace and dignity he bowed to us, and, 
accompanied by a young man, took a chair near by. 
He soon spoke cordially in the best of English, and I 
learned that he had been in the diplomatic service at 
one of the largest English ports for a long term of 
years, and that the young gentleman with him was 
his son who could speak French but not English. 
With our common knowledge of the former we carried 
on a lively conversation that lasted until we were 
in sight of Hong Kong nearly five hours later. 
We ate dinner together, and I extracted from the father 
— and he was not at all taciturn — more about China 
and her nearly half a billion people than I had ever 
before learned. He was a man of the highest educa- 
tion, entirely familiar with the literature and history 
of the white people. 

He was well aware that Japan's successful foreign 
policy and indeed her great interior policies by which 
have been accomplished the great steps forward that 
that empire has taken, were due entirely to her adop- 
tion of the American ideas, which had been taught 
her emperor mainly by a single American, — who is 
to-day, and for many years has been, Japan's foreign 
policy — Mr. Dennison. 

He said China must find such a man, and it ex- 
pected to secure him from America. He admitted 
that China's army was now being rejuvenated and 
revolutionized by American officers, and that Japan 
was really the moving cause of all this. 

He knew that Japan was working with China on 
228 



CHINA 

these things, was behind her, and would join hands 
with her in the pohcy of "Asia for the Asiatics." 
Japan's success with Russia had toppled over the 
already tottering doctrine that no European customs 
should be adopted. The actual witnessing of Japanese 
victory over the hated Europeans could not be gain- 
said, and the progressive party was now in the ascend- 
ancy and was hailed as the forerunner of the hour of 
deliverance from the humiliation to which China 
had long been and was now subjected by small white 
peoples. The Russian- Japan conflict had demon- 
strated that the Asiatic, trained and armed after the 
European customs, was, man for man, the equal of 
the European, and in his own country, more than that. 

The Chinaman now believed that he could do as 
well as the Jap and was setting out to prove it. 

Veiled as the thought was, I could not fail to 
see that what the Chinaman also thought was that 
when he should become the equal of the white devils, 
the latter would occupy but little of Chinese territory. 
And I'm blamed if I don't hope they will succeed. I 
think such a result is to be prayed for with all the 
fervoi' of which we are capable. 

From what I saw of it, the Far East is the best 
wrecker of a white man's mental, moral and physical 
strength I have ever met. 

At eleven o'clock we came within the most beauti- 
ful sight of all our journey, the harbor of Hong Kong 
at night. It was as if all the fairies in the world had 
come there to hang their twinkling lights in the night 
all over the great bay, in the strange city beside it, 
and far up on the mountain sides even to the skies, 
in whose vast depths shone millions of God's bright 
spheres, while the broad silver, ever-widening sheet of 
the wonderful full moon of the Orient spread out over 
the dancing waves. 

As far as the eye could reach was a myriad of 

lights, — close to the water, the toy lanterns of the 

slipper boats, the families of which were long since 

asleep in their little world; above them, beside them, 

229 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

behind them, shone the gleams from a thousand port- 
holes of an hundred floating giants, lazily resting till 
the day should come. An hundred swift launches, 
blazes of light, flashed here and there, in and out. 
Powerful searchlights streamed hke huge shafts of 
white metal across the night, and threw into view the 
white palaces of the rich, nestled high up on the green 
slopes; then slowly moved from side to side till they 
had crossed all the heights and then returned to search 
out some remote place which had till then escaped 
them ; while from the water front, thousands of windows 
glowed at our coming. 

We were met by scores of jinrickashaw men, 
each dangling his paper lantern. 

As I was whirled along by my huge, round-limbed 
fellow, in the midst of these emblems of carnival — 
to us — I was full of the events of this strange day, 
the beauty that I had just seen, the elation of coviing 
home — and the moon had set behind the hills before 
my eyes grew heavy, that last night in China. 



230 



CHAPTER XIV 



HOMEWARD BOUND 



Early on Wednesday, the seventeenth of August, 
we paid our modest bill at the Hongkong — $3.00 per 
diem in gold, room and board for each — made a 
few more purchases, fought with the porters to get 
them to take all of our luggage, two trunks, a box, 
and the huge sailor bag, and by nine-thirty were across 
the harbor clambering aboard the "Preussen," which 
was to be our home for an entire month. Our ap- 
pearance was greeted with the tooting of a very good 
shore band, a species of advertising practised by the 
German liners. The "Preussen" we found a huge 
affair, with promenade deck fully twenty feet wide 
and five hundred long. On the starboard side, amid- 
ship, we had the best cabin she afforded. No. 1; one 
of the two on the top deck. These two staterooms 
opened into a large ladies' cabin, luxuriously furnished, 
which we used as our parlor. Our accommodations 
almost dovibled in size those which we had on the 
"Sherman" — and there was an electric fan, too. A 
German man was our chambermaid. The door of 
our cabin was never closed, as prying eyes were de- 
barred by a yellow silk sliding curtain that reached to 
the floor. The window was fully two feet square, 
never closed, provided with another silk curtain and 
a lattice blind. 

In the following picture you may find our room 
under the forward lifeboat just in front of the first 
smokestack, above the top line of port-holes, and under 
the arrow head. 

The first thing I noted after clambering up the 

gangway was that our porters were carrying us aft 

into second class and clamoring for us to follow. On 

demanding an explanation I was confronted with a set 

231 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 



of second class labels with which a wag — whom I'll 
pound if we ever meet — and I know him well — had 
plastered every blessed one of our four large pieces 
of baggage! 

Steamer chairs of the kind familiar to the Atlantic 
boats, were for rent at $2.00 for the voyage. Just as 
we were about to leave, huge chairs, solid, of light 
rattan, fully seven feet long, back fitted at about forty- 
five degrees, furnished with receptacles for books, 
etc., under each arm piece, were offered for sale to us 
for $2.00 each. Could such a chair be obtained in 
America, and I have seen none, it would surely cost 




The Preussen 

$20. We, however, did not then know enough to buy 
and so missed availing ourselves of an exceptional 
opportunity, contenting ourselves with the folding, 
cane-seated regular steamer chairs. 

As we picked our way carefully in and out among 
the many vessels at anchor and coming and going, 
there were all flags but the one for which I searched. 

Such experiences make an xlmerican wish we had 
a ship marine. Other nations have it, and, appar- 
ently, are the gainers thereby. Certainly the Euro- 
pean people hare the mastery of the markets of the 
Orient. 

232 



HOMEWARD BOUND 

From the heat of Hong Kong, and of 100° at Can- 
ton, to a strong head breeze and a temperature of 
only 82°, was a welcome change; for with the breeze 
we had, the real temperature was not over 70°; and 
when we were well freed of the sheltering highlands, 
the air became almost as cold as it was when we were 
leaving San Francisco, and I donned more under- 
clothing, my rain coat and a vest. It was as if we were 
at home once more. 

I discovered that up to this point I had lost just 
ten pounds as a result of the journey; and it was long 
after Christmas before I found it. 

The cabin passengers were only fifteen in number. 
There was a frail little lady, invalided home from her 
home in Swatow, China, to England, for a dangerous 
operation, which meant an absence from husband and 
baby for at least nine months. 

There was a rotund, red-faced, hearty German 
with his wife and little girl on their way to their native 
country for the final time, as he was retiring from 
twenty years of life as a merchant at Shanghai. 

There was a German beer merchant from the 
same city, invalided home, threatened with pai-alysis 
of the legs and a resulting prostration of the mind, 
which threatened a resulting prostration to those who 
would listen to his hopeless talk. Had he not improved 
he would have driven everybody to the verge of jump- 
ing overboard in six days. 

Then there was a low- browed Portuguese army 
officer, who donned his dress uniform every night ; and 
a civilian of the same race, both going home after 
several years in Macao, the strange little gambling- 
house-island which Portugal has retained for several 
hundred years, near Hong Kong, as one of her colonies. 
As they spoke French we could converse tolerably. 

There was a red-faced, bristling, red-mustached 
Russian tea-taster, whose taste for tea and everything 
else had departed some days before, — as it did, he told 
me, every several years — which necessitated a trip 
to his home. 

233 



AROUND THE WORLD IX NINETY DAYS 

There was a little Russian Jew, a scholarly man. 
There was an American girl, a blonde, the only stylish 
woman I saw in the East. 

There was a young American lawyer from xitlanta, 
Georgia; a young German machinery contractor who 
had been around the world seventeen times; there 
was Sternfeld, the pump drummer from West Syracuse, 
on his way to the land of the Boers; there was a pig- 
tailed Chinese merchant, in a silk suit of European 
cut, and a Manila straw hat of American style, ac- 
companied by a round little wife, who was really pretty, 
and their baby boy; an intellectual German civil 
engineer, who had the dyspepsia and a young wife, 
both of which, when the unmarried surgeon, the best 
looking boy on the boat, was about troubled him a 
good deal. Add "the Chamberlins," as we were 
known, and the list is complete. So that we really 
traveled as if on a private yacht, so much room and 
attention did we receive. 

The Captain, removed from whom at table we 
sat some three places, was a little red-faced, fussy, 
pompous, fat German, whose weight must have been 
two hundred and twenty-five enveloping an elevation 
of only five feet-three. From a being gracious at the 
start, he developed into a perfect Boer in manners 
and became utterly uncompanionable, and always 
exceedingly sensitive about his personal appearance. 

There were three officers, splendid fellows, the 
first the favorite of their Emperor, six feet six, straight 
as an Indian, soldierly. The captain would never per- 
mit himself to be seen anywhere in this officer's vicinity, 
if such a catastrophe could be prevented. The cap- 
tain never liked me after he heard me say that I was 
going to get him and his first oflficer on one of my films. 

But the king of them all was Heinrich Mennekin, 
the second officer, who will always be treasured in 
our memories. He had been an officer on the "Kaiser 
Wilhelm II.," liked Americans, and loved to make 
others happy and contented. On these long voyages 

2 34 



HOMEWARD BOUJSW 

in the East the officers are instructed to help entertain 
the passengers, a service which does not appear irk- 
some. I beheve those young German officers would 
flirt with an angel (if she were encased in sufficient 
drapery to render it excusable.) 

The picturesque feature, was "the little German 
band," which discoursed at least four times daily 
for our betterment. It comprehended the musical 
talent among the chambermaids, bar-keepers, the 
printer and the cooks. In all they mustered ten 
pieces, — a brass band led by a chambermaid, whose 
red nose had been much elongated and otherwise 
puffed up and out by the usual German method — 
a large glass of which always stood beside his right 
leg when he had to leave it and blow his horn. They 
did very well, added much to the pleasure of the trip, 
and were wonderfully eager and willing to please in 
any capacity in which they served, and tliis is to be 
said of every employee aboard. They were surely 
the most obliging set of servants I ever met. 

We were now — to all appearances — in Ger- 
many. The talk was mostly German. There was 
beer. The menu was German and English. The 
money was German. The crew, except the stokers, 
who were strong Chinamen, were Germans. The 
hours and all the customs were German. 

Each meal was announced twice, half an hour 
between each call, by bugle. 

Here again, were the old awnings I hated so 
cordially; but, as the war was over, we could secure 
some dispensations which permitted less annoyance 
than on our first trip. 

As we left the sight of the China coast, and steered 
to the southward, for Singapore, our first calling place, 
1,387 miles toward the equator, I made this entry in 
my diary, "Am resting hard now," and I certainly 
did make myself lazy for two days. 

x4.s we grew acquainted, the fears lightened that 
we had had that Mrs. Chamberlin would have a hard 
battle to escape peril in this long voyage. As often, 
235 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

the experience was proving far less irksome and 
dangerous than the fears of it. As we bowled along 
at the rate of three hundred and twenty-five miles 
daily, ploughing steadily toward the equator, the 
air never above 88° and, because of the breeze, usually 
so cool that I wore my rain coat, our hearts grew less 
anxious. To our surprise we were informed that 
similar experiences were the rule at this time of the year 
— August — and that regularly we might anticipate 
the continuance of these mercies until we arrived at 
the Red Sea, for the Southwest Monsoon was now 
blowing, and barring a phenomenon, would steadily 
continue until long after we had passed beyond its 
part of the sea. 

In four and a half days, or to be exact, four days 
and fifteen hours, at 12.30 a.m. in the night of Mon- 
day and Tuesday, August 21 and 22, we were at the 
most southern point in all our journey, Singapore, at 
the extreme end of the Malay Peninsula, about fifty 
miles north of the equator. 

The town looked sleepy for it is on low ground 
a mile from where we lay, and we retired, only to 
emerge again at two-thirty, the entire family, to look 
at the moon. The proximity of the shore heightened 
the temperature much, and we had little use for our 
sleeping bags, and much for our electric fan. These 
sleeping bags were made by sewing together three 
edges of a sheet, into which receptacle you are supposed 
to crawl when you seek sleep. The object sought 
if I am correctly informed, is increased precaution 
against the gathering cold of the tropics which sets in 
late in the night. Unconsciously, often a sleeper 
throws off the ordinary sheet and then contracts a 
cold when the mercury falls, unless he happens to 
awake in season to protect himself. But after crawling 
into the bag, the body confining the under wall of it, 
the sleeper is almost sure to be better protected through 
the night, no matter how uneasy or restless he may 
be; furthermore, the additional physical efl^ort which 

236 



HOMEWARD BOUND 

is necessary to free the body entirely from the bag 
acts as a deterrent and therefore often as a protector. 



237 



CHAPTER XV 



A MORNING IN SINGAPORE 

In the early morning we moved up to the landing 
wharf. 

I had some misgivings about taking the camera 
ashore, because, when we went down the two flights 
that led to the dining-room from our deck there was a 
sign hung in our faces which declared it to be against 




Waiting for us 

the law to take pictures in Singapore. I secured 
more there, however, than at any other port at which 
we stopped. This prohibition is basecT on the fact 
that the city heights are heavily fortified, and England 
does not care to publish to the world particulars of 
defenses. . A swarm of pedlars invaded us, money 
238 





Scenes on the Wharf 





Awaiting our Landing 



.1 MORNING IN SINGAPORE 

changers, sellers of souvenir postal cards, of laces, 
of collections of postage stamps, of fruit, etc., and it 
was nine-thirty before we were free to go ashore. 

The harbor of Singapore, the exchange point of 
the East and West with the East African coast, Borneo, 
Java and Australia, is a wide one. A score of steamers 
were on all sides, but still no sign of our flag. 

We were in the land of the turban and the man- 
skirt; in a country in which the men wear far more 




A Coal Bearer 

than the women; and still it is an English Colony. 

Jinrickashaws were the prevailing conveyances, 
drawn by big, happy fellows, almost all, apparently, 
Chinese coolies. 

The Malay is taller than the Chinaman, and 
possesses features that are much like those of the 
Caucasian. But Singapore is surely half-Chinese. 

Mrs. Chamberlin and a lady friend were out of 

239 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

sight in their jinrickashaws before I was ready to 
start at all, and I did not see them again until their 
return. We had until one o'clock; and so notice 
was posted on board, — three hours and a half in 
the Malay Peninsula. 

I could only get into my jinrickashaw, point to 
the town and be whirled away, because my stocky 
Chinese boy knew not a word of Enghsh. So I stopped 
the first policeman, an Englishman, and got him to 




My Horse 

explain that I desired to go to the steamship office 
and then to the office of the Chief of Police. 

At the latter, I could obtain no promise, that I 
dared to act upon, that I would not be arrested if I 
took pictures, so I asked that my coolies be told to 
take me to the palace of the Governor. There I met 
a cordial reception from a deputy and in a little time 
emerged with the necessary permission. 

Then I began my picture taking. Singapore, 
240 



(S 143) 
PERMIT UNDER ORDINANCE XIX OF 1887. 



tills.. ^.^LtJL..i ^....^/(^kf^iAj!/:^^ 

of dd:n^ij2JL. omZlZL:}.. i^^::wfeMj^t<-<%l/. .is hereby permitted 

to take photographs or sketches of scenes in Singapore within 3,000 yards 

of the fortifications, provided that none of the fortifications of Singapore 

are shewn in such photographs or sketches. This permission holds good 

firxX/ ctcUiJ c^-r\J^ . 
for g poriod of on a niantn from th e d ato thoreof i 

^cla.<^(Mj (fj /Al, Governor. 

Singapore, ^.A. - JtMjj/UUkL... , i^oLf, 

I 




The JinricJcashaw Stand 





The Singa'pore Ox 



A MOENING IN SINGAPORE 

like Hong Ivong, is a European city in the Orient, 
only it does not pave its streets, nor construct very 
costly buildings. Many of its shops might as well 
be in Europe. There are several splendid hotels, 
run according to English standards, and toward them, 
or toward a restaurant beside a park, where there were 
tables under awnings, continental drinks and the latest 
European newspapers, all passengers, except the rest 
of my family appeared to have directed their coolies. 




An Absorbing Transaction 



I held up my hand to stop the driver of some 
oxen and moved him, by a sign, to where I wanted him. 

A side-view of these animals shows clearly their 
strange characteristics. They were gentle and I could 
see no use whatever for the thin fold of skin that hung 
so low from the neck. 

At this point an English policeman, in dark brown 
khaki and helmet of the same shade, armed with a 
241 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

billy, accosted me: "Now you know better than to be 
snapping this thing around 'ere. You know you 
'aven't any right to do that; so — " 

But the sight of my permit made all right. That 
occurred several times before one o'clock. 

In front of the main post-office I took a scene 
that exhibits a fondness for green or blue velvet skull 
caps and for huge plaids. 




A Noonday Meal 



Seeing a native settlement off the main street, I 
stepped along the river bank. These films show what 
was universally true of this city, i.e., that here all except 
the Chinese liked to have me take their pictures. 
These last spoiled several films for me by reversing 
their heads at the opportune time or by running away. 

I now hurried to that out-of-door restaurant, 
changed coolies, had a-monkey-and-a-parrot fight over 
242 




Beside the Fost-office 




Another Repast 




Just reached the Cigarettes 




My Modelf/enjoys it 



A J^fOJR^^xG z.y sixgapore 

the fee of the first one, which was finally settled by 
the intei'vention of the bai'keep who threw down the 
proper amount and told the man to take it or leave. 
He did both. 

It was already past twelve so I hurried my new 
horse, the barkeep telling him where I was to be taken. 
As I left the town I saw some women at work sawing 
wood by the seashore, and I secured two very good 
pictures of them so engaged; but I was so hurried and 
elated at the remarkably good views I had procured, 




A Market 

the fun of the thing and all, that both were on the same 
plate, which is not here reproduced. Beside them, 
however, I stopped a young woman with a basket on 
her head and with a sign asked her to pose for me, 
which she was very glad to do. 

Rattling along we soon came to an old fellow 
striding under a Chinese umbrella, carrying his slip- 
pers. I alighted, held up my hand for him to raise his 
head a bit, stood in his path and motioned him to be 
quiet. He obeyed with exactness. 
243 



ABOUJSTD THE WORLD IX NINETY DAYS 

■ A little further along as we passed a young woman 
who, apparently, was taking her father's dinner to 
him, I leaped out and motioned her to be quiet. My 
horse laughed a bit, and I secured two pictures of her, 
She appeared very pleased at my efforts to amuse her. 
Again I stopped, dismounted and secured a group 
of three, who could not have been more pleased had 
I tickled the bottoms of their feet. The amount of 
clothing they showed was remarkable. 




Willing to j)ose 



Especially is this so, when a comparison be made 
with the costume of some workingmen who were at 
work alongside the highway. 

It lacked but two minutes to one, our starting 
time, as I climbed the gangway after paying my 
horse fifteen cents per hour; but to my relief and dis- 
gust I discovered that there was still a full hour before 
departure; and such a sight as the "Preussen" was! 
244 




Another Restaurant 




Hold up your Head 




Father's Dinner 




Three Little Maids 



A MORNING IN SINGAPORE 

She had been coaled in our absence, and there was 
evidence thereof to the extent of a thirty-second of an 
inch of coal dust on everything. At every port we had 
this same mess. The coal is brought aboard in sacks 
on the backs of natives, and the fine dust permeates 
everything, and blackens the faces of every being on 
the ship. 




Warm Work 

I returned to the shore to take some views on the 
wharf. 

As we finally drew away from the dock a fleck of 
native canoes accompanied us, whose occupants, by 
shrill cries, urged us to throw money for which they 
would dive. 

They were utterly reckless and they would 
decend to an astounding depth and always succeeded 
in overtaking the shining coin, no matter how swiftly 
it were hurled. The most skilfvd of all were a 
father and his son, a fat little rascal not over four 
245 



AROUlSfD THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




Results of two Nickels 




The last of Singa^wrc 

246 



.1 MOEXIXG IX SIXGAPORE 

years old. He appeared more at home in the water 
than in the canoe and they two had their cheeks 
bulging with our coin when we left them astern. 

It was the last of Singapore. We were now headed 
for Penang, about twenty-eight hours run. 



247 



CHAPTER XVI 



TO CEYLON 

From Singapore to Penang, the distance is 395 
miles, throughout which the Captain never slept, nor 
left the chart room. It was the most dangerous part 
of the trip, for land loomed up in plain sight, for much 
of the time, upon either hand; mountainous Sumatra 
on the left and the Malay Peninsula on the right. We 
were making the Straits of Malacca. 

This sea-going business is far from the exact 
science it is quite generally understood to be, I fear. 
As matter of fact, with the sun hidden, no captain 
living can tell within fifty miles, where he is, for a 
surety. A current of which he may be wholly un- 
aware, — a current flowing swifter to-day than yes- 
terday, — a heavy drifting wind, — any one of them 
may send him far from his course ; and it is this knowl- 
edge that keeps him almost insane with anxiety and 
uncertainty, except when in the wild open sea. Then 
he cares not where he is, so long as he is where there 
is no land within an hundred miles; and he becomes 
as companionable as any employee can be who has 
the authority of life and death over a kingdom con- 
taining one thousand people, many of whom are his 
sviperiors in everything else. 

Upon quitting Singapore the air became cool 
again, the kindly monsoon came from dead ahead, 
and, with many new faces from Java, Borneo and 
Singapore, and the continuous sight of land, we were 
entirely comfortable. That night our linen sleep- 
ing bags were insufiicient and, as all other coverings 
had been removed from the cabins, we had recourse 
to our wardrobe a little before sunrise; and during 
the day of the twenty-third (August) I wore my rain- 
-248 



TO CEYLON 

coat all day and was still too cool. The glass regis- 
tered at 79° at noon. 

Of Penang we saw little except lights which 
indicated that the island was of slight elevation, as it 
was seven-fifteen when we hove-to about a mile from 
shore. Every ofiicer aboard had promised to see 
that I went ashore, and every one of them went flat 
back on me, so that I have the memory that Penang 
is a very unpleasant place, except for one thing, and 
that was the wonderful exhibition of phosphorescence 
which accompanied any disturbance of the water by 
oar or boat. It was as if the oars dipped very light 
green electric lights into the water at every stroke, 
or, again, as if each passing craft dragged an electric 
shaft after it, beneath the surface of the waving water. 

After a stay of an hour and a half, we were away 
again, now headed due west, at a little less than 6°N. 
Lat., on the trip of four and a half days to Colombo 
in Ceylon, the jewel market of all the world, 1084 
miles from Penang. 

My diary for this trip is as follows: 

"Wed. 24th Aug. Cool again last night. Cool 
all day. Air 80°. 

"Thursday, 25th Aug. Cool last night. Saltwater 
baths in a huge sail on deck at 6 a.m. Very cool all 
day — wore heavy suit and everybody has steamer 
rugs out. Heavy head wind which we are promised 
will last until, and even through the Red Sea. Air 82°. 

"Friday, 26th Aug. Sea heaviest since leaving 
San Francisco and too cool to be on deck, even in my 
blue serge suit (heavy trousers) and raincoat. Have 
felt near to seasickness all day. Unless this sea goes 
down I expect it will catch me before very long. Only 
five at our table last evening, and six this a.m. at break- 
fast and lunch. A good many disgusted looking people 
are lying about the decks in their huge chairs. Air 79°. 

"Saturday, 27th Aug. Sea quiet to-day. Wore 
same clothing I wear in the States; and covered with 
coat all day. Read 3-4 novels. Am still a little shaky. 
Air 80°." But I escaped. 

241) 



ABOUND THE WORLD IJST JYINETY DAYS 

By this time those of us who had come on at 
Hong Xong felt as if we owned the ship and conducted 
its affairs; and our crowd, of course, had some hard 
things to say about the encroachments of the many 
impudent people who joined us at Singapore and 
converted our private yacht into an ocean steamer; 
and yet I presume these people paid their passage 
and were entitled to those privileges which we superior 
people did not want. When there were only a score 
of us, each could have any place on deck he desired 
but when the number was doubled, and as many more 
seven-foot chairs came on, too, whose owners had 
decided that they wanted their chairs in a certain place 
all the time, a question arose that has never yet been 
settled, I am told, by any steamer company: i.e., "Who 
owns this part of the deck, anyhow?" 

Various solutions have been offered. The best 
one of which I know is to fee the deck steward and, 
when the offending party is down below, the obliging, 
forgetful servant will put your chair where you want it 
and kick the other one around the corner where its 
owner does not want it. 

This gang of interlopers and codfish aristocracy 
who invaded us at Singapore were mostly Dutch from 
Java who were going home to the little kingdom of 
dam towns — Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and the rest 
of the dam family. Splendid, hearty, domestic, frank, 
honest people whom you would trust with all your 
money on five minutes acquaintance, with such de- 
votion and content between man and woman as you 
never saw in any other people — unassuming, modest, 
plain of dress and speech, but steady, strong, anchored 
fore and aft, unassailable, a stone wall when convinced 
that they are right, all in all the best people the world 
has produced. 

They, like the families whom we joined at Hong 
Kong, were taking Oriental servants to the Continent 
with them; amahs, they call them, Malay or Chinese 
servants, male or female, as the taste may desire. 

Our friendship with these Europeans who dwell 
250 



TO CEYLON 

in the East gave us an insight into the Hfe they hve, 
that, quickly stated, may be interesting. Their houses 
are filled with servants. So enervating is the heat 
that soon after one's arrival from Europe, the laziness 
of the Oriental life is gladly adopted and from that 
moment until sickness compels a journey home, in 
a couple of years, the newcomer does nothing physi- 
cally or mentally that he can get done by a coolie or an 
amah. The European woman has two or three chair 
coolies, a sewing amah, two or three for cooks, as 
many more for general housework, a similar number 
for the table woi-k, several in the laundry, and a nurse 
or two. An amah does her mistress's hair, does her 
manicuring, practically dresses and undresses her, 
and, between whiles, sits like a spaniel by her chair, 
stroking her hand and gazing fondly into her face; 
and if the two can converse in Malay, an exceedingly 
easy thing to do, the native will jabber along like a 
happy child hour after hour, or croon a song that 
seems endless. The mistress never stirs a hand or 
moves from her long reclining chair. If, by chance she 
has turned, in a doze, onto the book she was reading, 
she never reaches to find it. She calls the amah for 
that purpose. Never does she cross the room to fetch 
anything. The amah attends to that. If she desires 
to sleep she never pulls the light shawl by her side 
over her chest. The amah does it. The amah does 
everything. 

To hire ten of these servants, which is apparently 
about the average number a modest Eastern home 
demands, costs from $25 to $30 a month, about the 
cost of a single first-class servant in the States; and 
she does about as much as the whole lot of them. 
A dollar a week is an extravagant wage for Malay or 
Chinese servants, and they board themselves and 
bring up their always large families on this sum. Fruit 
and rice are substantially all they need for food; and 
neither costs anything worth defining. Hence they 
are usually canned, when accompanying their employers, 
free of charge on an Asiatic steamer which provides 
251 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

them with a corner somewhere to sleep and the leavings 
from the table for food. 

Is it any wonder that European women contract 
physical troubles in such surroundings that compel 
their frequent journeys home ? Life for them must be 
one eternal sacrifice. In the East they are like birds 
in an unhealthy, hot cage. In Europe they are away 
from their families for months at a time. There is no 
contentment to be had. 




Chinese Female Amah 

We had one Chinese amah aboard to attend one 
of these invalid ladies. This female servant wore 
the thin, wide, brown cambric trousers and long roomy 
sleeved, loose coat reaching to the knees that Chinese 
men affect so much in the States. She also wore the 
regulation Chinese padded footwear. She was never 
out of sight of her mistress night or day, sleeping 
252 



TO CEYLON 

beside the latter's couch every night, fanning her 
when sleeping on deck. 

The only thing that a European ever appears to 
say to an amah is in half -formed sentences like "Go 
fetchee little piecee string — my trunk — look amah, 
my trunk, top side. Go fetchee, quick. Chop ! Chop ! 
Go fetchee!" 

In carrying white children, these servants in- 
variably place them over the hip, and let the baby's 
little legs straddle the waist. The nurse holds one 
arm loosely behind the child while the other is entirely 
free. 



j^HF"'' ^ Wdj 


^^^^^^hF 




i / ; ■ ' / 




._■* 
.j^, 


i ^'/ 


^^^^Bl-\ 'j^L. 




t / ^ 


^^^^^tL>-' 


\ 


w / 


W^^UtCi^ 


A 


i ! 


m^^^^s^ 


d 


♦/'; 



Betty 

The Malay amah, the female, wears but one 
garment so far as I know, and that a colored calico 
bag through which she thrusts her head. The whole 
arrangement reaches to the knees of her ill-shaped 
legs. Barefooted she is always, and with flat chest, 
flat head, retreating forehead and irregular, poor 
teeth, she presents but few agreeable physical char- 
acteristics. As the temperate zone is entered she is 
made to don stockings, shoes and other protectors. 

There was one Malay male amah aboard, whose 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DATS 



especial charge was a six months old Dutch baby, 
whose young parents were journeying to their home 
in Amsterdam from their coffee plantation in Java. 
He watched "Betty" like a dog. I have the little 
thing's portrait as she lay asleep in the sunlight, with 
her mamma, sitting on the deck, tilting up one end of 
the basket. Betty would sleep in this position for a 
number of hours each day. 

Betty spent the day in the basket, swinging from 




Betti/s Amah 

the upper deck, and, when asleep and her picture were 
not wanted, she was guarded from insects by an 
encircling shawl, while beside her, silent, sat her 
patient, barefooted protector. 

To this amah was entrusted every care she re- 
quired. He was dressed, as the picture smoewhat 
indicates, in short, white duck trousers, a jacket 
and a broad, vari-colored silk sash under the coat, 
254 



TO CEYLOX 

the long ends of the sash hanging far down on the 
left side. 

At the first call for breakfast every fellow jumped 
out of his bunk, wrapped a kimona about him and 
made for the salt water tubs, between decks. As on 
the "Sherman" each passenger could engage a tub 
for a certain twenty minutes each day, by writing his 
name on a list opposite the time desired. If anybody 
was late or early, and of course, he was usually one or 
the other, he found out the name of the man who 
should have been there and wasn't, and inserted his 
own name, so that there was an apparent justification 
for the theft or error. 

If a man desired, he sat about by the half-hour 
before or after his bath in his kimona, — many of 
which were very rich and beautiful, — and his bare 
feet, shins and throat were no bars to the entry into any 
society on board. Groups of a number of chatting, 
smoking men, so attired, and their lady friends seated 
or standing about a large table on deck loaded with 
fruits, cakes and coffee — a before breakfast breakfast 
— were accompaniments of each day. 

The table on this boat was extraordinary. It 
was fully equal, except in variety, to that on the "Kaiser 
Wilhelm II.," the premier hotel now crossing the Atlantic, 
and in respect to fruit was far in advance of it. Some 
of the Far Eastern fruits excel any we have, so far as 
my taste is concerned. I have never yet seen or tasted 
any fruit in the States or the Continent which approaches 
the mangostine in delicacy. 

But the frequent stops which we made at large 
ports afforded opportunity for the purchase of fresh 
meats and other supplies, so that there were no in- 
dications from the appearance or taste or effect of the 
food, that we were not dining at a first-class German 
hotel on land. 

The only thing I did not like about the dining- 
room were those eternal punkahs, which, swinging 
back and forth, propelled by the young Chinese who 
sat on the floor just outside the main entrance, swatted 
255 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

me in' the nose nearly every time I sat down or arose 
from the table. And in time of danger from sea- 
sickness ! think of the effect — perhaps, however, I 
should not advise that — upon a man just fighting to 
keep on his feet, seated at a table and looking up and 
seeing half the ceiling moving toward him, then receding 
and regularly returning. Then I hurried for the open 
deck, and when feehng at all squeamish thereafter I 
ordered my food brought to my chair on the deck and, 
in the hotter days, that was the rule pursued by most 
of the passengers. 

Breakfast was no sooner out of the way and the 
day fairly begun when the band struck in at eleven for 
the first extra luncheon, — tea, coffee, lemonade, 
crackers, all sorts of sandwiches and cakes, which was 
passed about the deck. Then came luncheon proper. 
"Tiffin" we had left in China. 

Then everybody went to sleep, on deck if the day 
were warm, below if cool. That was when those 
couch chairs became the best things ever, for with 
two or three cushions they were far preferable to any 
others aboard. 

But the kids got after us. Besides the Arabian 
and his wife, a Chinaman, or two, several English women 
with their children, babies with amahs, etc., etc., 
there had sneaked in unbeknown to us a pest that 
nearly disrupted our party, in the guise of a captain 
in the German army, monocle and all who, with his 
wife, by reason of his great position was given place at 
the Captain's right. They, this couple, had two beer- 
drinking baby boys, who drank all the mugs dry that 
they could get their little hands onto, and the way 
they would howl was wonderful. They were of the 
kind that howls like so many coyotes and the father, 
being a gentleman, could only whip them. It was 
explained to me that German officers have to be gen- 
tlemen, but this one was nothing but a human hog, 
caring only for himself, entirely regardless of the 
comfort, wishes, or rights of others, — a perfect cad. 

But how to stop the kids ? That was the ques- 
256 



TO CEYLON 

tion. They had successively halted their train of cars 
and tooted beside every sleeping passenger who lay 
happily dreaming in his chair so often that a council 
of war was held, and the Captain told to help us. 
He only said, "What can I do? Drown them?" 

That baby problem is also another thing that will 
have to be arranged before I again agree to spend a 
whole month on a boat with a dozen squalling babies. 

Mrs. C. solved the riddle. One day when we 
were all about crazy with so much yelling and spanking, 
she screeched in answer to the German army nuisances, 
mocking them perfectly; and after this had been 
done a number of times, it dawned upon the thick- 
headed army officer that something was being said to 
him; and thereupon he kept his calliopes in a remote 
part of the ship. 

Hardly was one awake after the siesta when the 
band tooted once more at four o'clock for more sand- 
wiches, cakes, etc., etc., and then came the formal 
dinner, at which about half of the men appeared in 
dress suits and half, without ; and the little band turned 
into an orchestra. After that about everybody, ladies 
and all, except our little circle, rushed for the gentle- 
man's smoking room. The band played on the main 
deck with mugs of beer between the legs of its members, 
from eight-thirty to nine-thirty. There was a last 
service of large beers and the day was done. Our fam- 
ily varied this continuously with an hour of walking 
each evening. 

So you see, it was a continuous case of eat, music, 
eat, music; eat, music; and drink beer. 

With such an outrageous course of diet, in an 
enervating climate, confined, as we were, to a small 
area, it is a wonder that anybody escaped alive. Had 
I not dodged, this story would never have been written. 

The greatest excitement of each day, however, 
was provided by the sweepstakes, the pool on the 
day run of the ship. Forty numbers were placed 
folded in a box. For a mark (twenty cents) one 
could blindly draw one number. The number drawn 
257 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

that rtearest approximated the exact distance covered 
by the ship in the past twenty-four hours, took all the 
money, $8.00. On occasions, the stakes were increased. 
At this game the Chamberlin family became notorious. 
Of the fifteen contests of this character, either Mrs. C. 
or I won in nine, until the rest of the contributors 
were astounded, — some angry, — many suspicious. 
In all we won about $60. We intended to spend it all 
on the last night of the voyage in a huge champagne 




The Quartette 

punch to the ship, but many became so angry at our 
continual wins that we kept the money just out of 
spite. Besides, we were getting short, anyhow. 

One day I happened to be leaning over the for- 
ward rail when I recognized a face for which I had 
been searching. Its owner was a full professor in 
one of the largest law schools in the United States, 
who was traveling third-class on an Asiatic steamer, 
in the summer time, with several hundred ill-smelling 
258 



TO CEYLON 

Chinamen, Malays and Cingalese; an experience be- 
side which a steerage passage on an Atlantic liner 
would have been a fete. He plainly showed the signs 
of wear. I had no idea he was in the steerage. In 
the second-class was where I had placed him. He 
was just completing his journey around the world, 
and the entire trip would not cost him over $300, 
including everything, the trip across Europe and 
America. From Manila to New York his passage 
was only $130. But, great as was the saving, it is not 
an experience that I could advise; nor, do I believe, 
he would. He was a pretty forlorn looking object 
when I saw him, and the work of bad air, poor food, 
filth and disgust at his inevitable companions had 
made havoc in his cheeks. 

The Captain of the "Sherman" should know 
that the decks of the "Preussen" were washed at the 
luncheon hour, that no fatal results ensued and 
that we all slept better at night for the change. 

While we were asleep in the cool night of Saturday, 
the twenty-seventh of August, our white ship crept 
into Colombo harbor, another English port, and 
dropped anchor at about a quarter mile from shore. 



269 



CHAPTER XVII 



FOUR HOURS IN CEYLON 

The ship was early astir on Sunday the twenty- 
eighth of August, and before seven the patter of many 
bare feet, the chatter of a strange tongue and scurrying 
visions of dark faces and black hair told us that we 
were in a new land. 

By eight o'clock and without breakfast half a 
dozen of us were climbing down the gangplank into 
one of the small rowboats, covered with an awning of 
sheeting, that surrounded us — their owners shouting 
their desire for custom. The sun was already furiously 
hot and covered carriages of American style (carryalls) 
drawn by large Australian horses were procured for 
the trip that all steamer passengers take while the ship 
is coaled and provisioned — the visit to Mt. Lavinia. 
We had until 12.20, noon. 

Native policemen abounded at the wharves, and 
as they could speak English we impressed their services 
to secure our carriages and adjust the prices, which, 
like the charges for the ferry from the ship to shore 
— twenty-five cents — are fixed by public regulations, 
an English thought for strangers which is further 
shown by the presence on steamers of pamphlets 
containing these things and many other facts useful 
to the hurried traveler. This was the land of the 
rupee, thirty-three and one-third cents, and we were 
warned that nothing else would be accepted except at 
English establishments and then at heavy rates of 
exchange. What that means may be understood when 
I paid forty cents to change £5 (English — $25 Ameri- 
can) to rupees. 

There is one splendid thing about an English 
colony in the East. There is no opportunity for 
enforcing exorbitant charges for public service and all 
260 



FOUR HOURS IN CEYLON 

such conveniences are exceedingly reasonable. Under 
no other Government in the world would you, I am 
sorry to say, find a law enforcing — and enforced, 
too, right up to the handle — the rate that boatmen 
shall charge for carrying passengers to and from a 
steamer in the harbor. 

Lavinia is a wooded promontory some five miles 
from town, on the highest point of which, jutting far 
out into the sea, is located the Mt. Lavinia Hotel, 
a first-class English retreat, from whose open rooms 




By the Road 

one may see miles of tall nodding palms fringed by 
the white surf, breaking in broad curves on a white 
beach. 

To reach this spot, one rides entirely through 
the town, which is almost wholly English in archi- 
tecture and all modern. English soldiers, in khaki, 
and cork helmets are often met. Until away from 
the city as many Caucasians meet the eyes as natives. 
Once free of the town, with the broad, well-kept 
261 



AROUND THE WOBLD IN NINETY DAYS 

streets, we rode along on a hard, wide road, by the 
sea, past a huge European hotel, beside wide parks, 
a polo club, a parade ground — always the accom- 
paniments of an English garrison town, — past beauti- 
ful residences, half-hidden in waving palms, huge 
leaved tropical plants, long hedges and fern trees, with 
flowers and lawns that led to the sea whose white 
foam could be seen crested like an endless waving wall 
beyond; past less pretentious places, on either side 




The Tomb and the Sea 



of the street, all hidden in gardens of flowering shrubs 
like the homes in Honolulu, and each little house had 
its name on the gate. 

Then the native houses began to appear, low, 
of stone, with picturesque red-tiled roofs which pro- 
ject so that half of the home is out of doors, half 
within. 

The draught work is done by small oxen and 
the native vehicle is a large cart set on two wheels, 
, 262 




Cingalese Cart 




A J]^ ay side Group 



I 



FOUR HOURS IN CEYLON 

the body thatched on the sides and above with bam- 
boo and nipa or its equivalent, a house on wheels. 

The Ceylonese or Cingalese, as you or I may 
please, are unquestionably the best looking of the 
black races, that the world affords. Their counte- 
nances, carriage, build and strength are those of the 
Caucasian. They are erect, broad-shouldered, tall, 
deep-chested, and enjoy good teeth. They dress as 
is shown in the pictures ; that is, the older ones do. 

One characteristic, however, is wanting in the 
pictures, and that is the long hair of many of the 
natives, which they coil about the top of the head in 
a shining black braid, of which they take great care, 
and which is held in place by a tortoise-shell comb 
— usually beautifully transparent, for we were at the 
home of the tortoise. 

The younger folk dress like the young gentleman 
clad in a piece of twine, and whose picture follows. 

I readily ascertained that I was not the first 
American who had seen that little fellow. Some 
passing transport to or from the Philippines had 
brought an American soldier to that boy. It was a 
soldier trick if I know one. That was a Winchester 
shell hung about the little fellow's hips by that frail 
piece of store cotton string. His bracelets and neck- 
lace he may have procured elsewhere, but a private 
in our volunteers furnished the rest. 

On either hand as we proceeded further from 
town, were beautiful palm groves, whose tall trunks 
burst up through thick foliage, and for the last mile 
we rode in sight of the sea on a soft forest road over- 
hung with palms so thick that no hot rays could reach 
us. Little beggars were beside us, turning somer- 
saults, or clinging to our carriage till a small army of 
them had collected. Our repeated refusals, however, 
tired them and they soon left us for other prey already 
in sight behind us. When, however, a young mother 
with a babe sucking at her breast ran alongside, with 
appealing hand extended, we could no longer resist 
and "gave up" freely. 

263 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

"The Lavinia" we found a delightful place 
reached by a long lane of^ tropical gardens. It had wide 
verandas and rooms open to the air, which came in a 
soft breeze from the sea that almost surrounds the 
spot. A broad lawn, rustic seats, shady nooks grown 
over rocks lashed in foam, afforded an attractive feast 
for eyes that were hungry for the Occident, and had 
seen enough of the Orient to last for some period. 

Beautiful teak wood furniture, wonderfully carved. 




Protected by American Shells 

adorned large parlors. A score of English gentlemen, 
— guests, — were eating in all sorts of places, ap- 
parently wherever they asked to have a table set; 
and we, taking the cue, asked to be served on the lawn 
in the shade. At once a table was set not over a 
hundred feet from the sounding surf below us, and we 
devoted ourselves to an English menu. 

Hardly were we seated when many ravens began 
264 



FOUR HOURS IX CEYLOX 

to gather on the roof above our heads in the near 
shrubbery and then on the lawn by our feet. Often 
one more courageous than the rest, would dart down 
onto our serving table, snatch a remnant and escape 
from the scolding Cingalee who attended us. I then 
set a plate of crumbs for them in a chair about six feet 
away from us, and they besieged it. 

Back to town we went, and a hot ride it was. 

We passed a group, however, which would make 
a famous picture; as, however, it was on the shady 




The Ravens 

side of the street, I could not secure an instantaneous 
photograph of it. Seated on the curb, beneath a tile 
roof, was an old native gentleman, with nothing on 
but a pair of shppers and a towel skirt. His deep, 
broad chest was black with a very heavy growth of 
curly hair. His hair, interspersed with gray, was coiled 
like a serpent on the crown of the head, and a huge 
tortoise comb, half-circular, was set upright in the back 
of it. Low down on his nose rested a huge pair of 
265 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

tortoise rimmed spectacles with round glasses fully an 
inch and a half in diameter, the largest I ever saw on 
a human being. Through these his eyes were slowly 
following his index finger as it picked out the letters in 
a biblical looking book, which lay on his knees. Aloud 
he read his conclusions to a wondering group of native 
men who sat on their haunches before and beside him, 
their faces solemnly, earnestly turned to his. They 
paid no attention to my interest in their movements 
and I felt the occasion was too sacred to be interrupted 
by an ignorant visitor; and I would not ask them to 
sit quietly for so long an exposure as would have been 
necessary. If I ever saw a sacred picture there it was, — 
heathen, idolaters, Buddhists or whatever those people 
were, they were trying to find out about God. 

Hurrying along, we were soon at the shops and 
here, even if it was Sunday morning, we bargained 
up to the last thirty seconds, watch in hand. We 
would have braved losing the steamer, but we had no 
money nor had any of our party. We had bor- 
rowed from them and they from us, and when all 
were "busted" we loaded ourselves with bundles and 
started for the water-front. Meeting other passen- 
gers, we raised a loan sufficient to pay the boatman to 
take us back to the ship, of which I took a picture 
as we rounded toward the gangway. 

There is an advertisement on one of the outlying 
boats which I shall not further describe, as I shall get 
nothing from the man who paid for it. 

By the side of our ship were some fellows, in rude, 
frail craft with wide outriggers, merchants patiently 
holding their wares to the view of our passengers far 
above them. 

Then came the last moments of barter. It is in 
the last five minutes of the stay of a great steamer that 
advantageous bargains are to be had. Prices then 
reach their lowest level. On both sides it is a case of 
"now or never," and usually it is "now." 

As for myself I gave my attention to the diving 
boys. 

266 




Drinh Tea 



•^^j^ass. " ■■''^^^ '-"-°'°^-r--TTr--Tr---miiMl 




The Merchant 



i 

1 



FOUR HOURS IN CEYLON 

Their watermanship is wonderful, and I have 
never seen one fail to secure the little shining coin. 
Their greatest skill, how"ever, is shown in the manage- 
ment of their canoes. These latter are made to leap 
forward or back, far to one side or the other like ridden 
cayuses. 

It is about forty feet from the Captain's deck to 
the water, but any of these boys were glad to shin up 
the smooth sides of our craft and leap far out for a 
dime. 




Papa! I Dive! 

A little rat in the above picture crawled jUp 
to where he is shown, beside Mrs. Chamberlin, held out 
his hand to me and shouted "Papa! I dive — Papa!" 
I'll admit my face was crimson, and "Papa" was 
hurled at me for the rest of the voyage. 

We were started on our 2100 miles journey of a 

w^eek, for Aden, at the entrance to the Red Sea. As 

we moved, the divers redoubled their clamor and they 

finally had to be beaten off the ship's sides by a broom 

267 



ABOUND THE WOBLD IN NINETY DAYS 

wielded by a stout German sailor boy, who pounded 
their httle hands till they screamed in pain and dropped 
down into the surging waters thirty feet below. 

These and three naked boys balancing themselves 
on a treacherous log on which they had paddled from 
shore, dancing up and down, singing "Tarrah rah 
Boom de Ay, Tarrah rah Boom de Ay" with all their 
lungs, was the last I recall of Colombo. 

A week was to pass before we could again step 
ashore. 



i 



268 



CHAPTER XVIII 



THREE HOURS IN ARABIA 



A great note of rejoicing swept the good ship 
from stem to sternpost when we were free from Ceylon 
and headed straight to the northwest; for now the 
German beer could be tapped. So far Japan beer 
had been used, which only served to stimulate the 
German appetite for its native brew. 

Now the wind shifted some, and, by complaining 
to our fellow passengers that we did not like our cabin, 
we kept many of those poor people who were in rooms 
between decks from occupying No. 2, the companion 
to our own, on the other side of the ship; and into that 
we now moved; and whenever the wind shifted back 
again of a night, we went back, too, so that we were 
always sure of any breeze there was. On more than 
one occasion we occupied both rooms during the same 
night, being awakened by the sudden warmth caused 
by the departure of the breeze. 

The only entries in my diary for the first days of 
this part of the voyage are the distance traveled, the 
ship's location, and the temperature of 82° on the 
first day, 84° on the second, and 80° on the third, 
which was the last day of August. 

That day, my diary reads: "Very cool. Over- 
coat day. The birthday of the Queen of Holland. 
A wild night, I tell you, with free champagne, free 
champagne punch, and free beer, etc., etc. Holy 
smoke! " 

Of what took place I shall set down but little 
for permanent record. This is a yea and nay vote 
and I am always very careful about such things. In- 
deed I am not quite sure that I ever knew just what 
did occur after ten o'clock, although I am informed 
that I left the field of battle shortly after midnight. 
269 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

At dinner, there were great goings on, speeches in 
Dutch and German, toasts and champagne for all the 
heads that wore crowns until I felt as if I had on the 
biggest one that ever was made. The fat little captain, 
in a dress uniform, which, when he sat down, hunched 
up to the bare spot on the back of his cranium and 
fairly hid the bottom of his red ears, made a little 
guttural speech and everybody shouted "Hcch! hoch!" 
and I thought of Admiral Coghlan. Betty's hand- 
some Dutch papa responded and there were more 
"Hochs." The band played the German and Dutch 
national anthems out of tune — the band had been 
celebrating, too — and, when adorned in miniature 
Dutch flags and wearing paper fool-caps, we suc- 
ceeded in climbing upstairs, the orchestra tooted a 
waltz, and the carnival was on till blamed near sunrise. 

Gee! but what a night that was! I lived two 
years in four hours. 

Vide next Exhibit, to wit: (my diary for the next 
day.) 

"Thursday, 1st Sept. The day after. My mouth 
tastes like quassia. Ugh ! — and with a heavier sea 
than yesterday I am almost seasick. I slept this after- 
noon. Air 78°. Several flying fish came aboard on 
our deck, one six inches and one ten inches long. 

"Friday, 2nd Sept. We won the sweepstakes, 
28 marks ($7.00). Very cool. Overcoat and rug all 
day with vest on. Heaviest sea of the trip. Slept 
Friday and Saturday night with sheets, blanket and 
overcoat on and blind (of window) half-closed. No 
fan on. Worked all day upon report. Going by 
Escotra (mountainous island on the outside of Cape 
Guardafui, on the northeast corner of Africa) all 
day to-day. Sea birds — gulls — at four p.m. Air 81°. 

"Saturday, 3rd Sept. Woke up at six, to find it warm 
and no sea. Sun shining. Passed small fishing schooner 
on port, a quarter of a mile away, with all sails furled. 

"Worked all day on report. Air 89°, the hottest 
since Hong Kong." 



270 



THREE HOURS IN ARABIA 

This was the last night before the Red Sea and we 
could understand enough to fear a breezeless passage 
between the hot desert sands that bound it a thousand 
miles on each side. With no moving air, the trip 
was a frightful thing to contemplate, when here we 
were, way out at sea in a temperature of 89° and already 
beginning to suffer for air. That temperature would 
increase, we knew, and for nearly four days and nights, 
for it is a good 1200 miles through the Red Sea, we 
could secure no relief — and add twenty-four more 
for the Suez Canal, worse still, with the sands so near. 
The outlook was very gloomy. 

But before noon our breeze came back and hope 
with it; but it was still uncomfortable. That night 
many slept on deck. A hundred of the third class 
slept or tried to sleep in the air; those, who had any, 
in chairs, on the deck below, but the most of them 
stretched out on the hatches and the smooth deck. 

On our deck and in the second cabin, half the 
passengers occupied their chairs, clad in kimonas and 
wrappers. Our family employed our fan, and had a 
good night. 

The next day, Sunday, Sept. 4th, we awoke to 
find the Arabian coast near us on the starboard, and 
a more discouraging looking place mortal eye never 
beheld. It was brown. There was not a growing 
thing in the landscape, not a blade of grass — simply 
burnt earth, far as the eye could reach. Before break- 
fast we were off Aden. 

"Look! Look!" was cried, and there right in 
the midst of the rowboats, the owners of which 
had come to show us their wares or to take us ashore, 
were the fins of huge sharks elevated two feet above 
the water — great fellows, twenty feet long and there 
darting in and out they remained as long as the ship 
lay to. Seldom have I seen anything that appeared 
more gruesome. 

Hereabouts, too, had been many of the world's 
tragedies. Within fifty miles of here, a wrecked crew 

271 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

had been eaten by cannibals, and that within a few 
years. Other unfortunates had lately been carried 
away into slavery. We were in one of the worst locali- 
ties on the globe, and those sharks did not improve 
its appearance any. 

The venders in the boats threw up little balls 
attached to cords, to which were tied such articles as 
we desired to see. These were drawn up, and we were 
busy with ostrich plumes, koodoo horns and heads, 
souvenir postal cards, desert armor, etc., etc. The 




Off Aden 

price indicated was usually more than double what was 
eventually paid before the bargaining was done. 

Hailing a row-boat we started ashore after agree- 
ing on the price for the service on offering different 
coins vmtil the amount was satisfactory to both sides, 
a very reasonable sum, an English shilling for each 
passenger. 

No sooner were we ashore than a horde of natives, 
with carriages, attached themselves to us and could 
not be driven off until we disappeared within a hotel, 

272 ■ 




By Aden 




The Landing 



THREE HOURS IN ARABIA 

which was about the first place to visit, as we had had 
no breakfast. 

My, but what a place that was! Hotel! We 
couldn't find the drawing room. There was a dining 
room, and after a hot half hour spent in bargaining, 
in the shop which took up the larger part of the build- 
ing, we ate elsewhere — on the narrow veranda, 
where, by this time, a score of our friends were engaged 
similarly or with iced drinks. 

This is where ostrich feathers may be bought for 




On the Ilicjliway 

a song, and the "Preussen" carried to Europe many 
tubes of them purchased for even less than that. 

Armor, swords, strange Soudan and Sahara pieces, 
a desert musical instrument, a Japanese sword and a 
rhinoceros shield from Abyssinia fell to my lot, while 
Mrs. Chamberlin secured many things of a finer nature. 

That was the hottest and the most detestable 
place I have ever visited. There is not one thing 
about it that is fit for any human being. 
27:i 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

While Mrs. C. was purchasing, I hired a young 
boy of eighteen without any shirt, as a guide. He 
took me to the cable station, near our landing place. 
Opposite the cable office was a tomb. I tried to get 
a good picture of a camel and the tomb on one film, 
so related are they, but the drivers were so ugly that 
they would not stop and pose for me. At last, an 
English officer of police — Aden is another English 
port — came out of a building, evidently the police 
station, and observed the ungraciousness of one of 




Beside the Tomb 



the camel drivers who had sneered at my request — 
expressed by signs. He at once spoke sharply to 
two native policemen, who made after the native, 
seized his camel by the bridle, turned the outfit about 
and brought it back, with its now sputtering, balk- 
ing driver, and compelled that gentleman to pose his 
steed where I indicated. If that native called me half 
the things he looked — as well as said — and he said 
a good many — he will not have opportunity ever to 
fight me in the next world, i.e., if he gets his deserts. 
274 



THREE HOURS IN ARABIA 

I made my best bow to my English cousin, who was 
very glad, he assured me, to accommodate a traveler. 
The natives are an ugly, monkey-faced lot, black 
as the ace of spades, some clad in a short piece of 
cloth tied at the waist, some in loose linen — children 
naked except for a breech cloth. Nobody had a smile 
except the children. Life in that terrible place was 
too hard for "the genial current of the soul" long to 
remain unbaked. All in all, they looked as disgusted 




Princifol Street 



as I was after I had been there an hour. 

The architecture is Egyptian, — low, square mud 
houses, — but just as I was engaged in making history 
of some of it, my camera stuck fast and I had to hunt 
for a dark room and some new films, for I had no 
more. 

That dark room experience was more uncom- 
fortable, physically, than the one at the top of the 
house in Canton but was devoid of any feeling of 
275 



AROUyn THE WORLD lY NINETY DAYS 

danger. I spent just thirty-five minutes in a room 
in the hotel, ten feet square, with every window and 
door fastened. I drew the curtains, but it was not 
sufficiently dark; and then I stripped the bed of its 
sheets and took up the rugs ; and by tying these — 
succeeding only after many failures in making them 
fast upon the two windows, the two keyholes and 
several huge cracks that were under the doors, I had 
a fair place in which to work. I stumbled over fur- 
niture which in my haste I had misplaced and, shutting 




The Veiled Lady 

myself into a dresser adjusted my camera, injected 
some new films, which the hotel store had in abund- 
ance, and threw open the doors. The thermometer 
outside that day, in the sun was 107°. What it was 
in that room when I was perched on a rickety chair 
standing on my tip-toes and trying to reach up an inch 
or two more than my height would admit, all the while 
striving to pin up a heavy Persian rug over a window, 
reaching, stretching, dropping the rug, then picking 
276 



i 



THREE HOURS IX ARABIA 

it up again and beginning all over anew, I make no 
estimate. I have never dared to do so. 

Everything that any of our passengers wore that 
day was wet as if rained upon. Huge spots of per- 
spiration showed on the backs of about everybody 
from the shoulders to the hips. Beads of it rolled down 
the face and dropped on to our clothing, the floor, our 
plates, our purchases. Large beads stood out all over 
the body and a perfect brook followed the curves of 
my backbone. Patches of wet cloth clung to the 




Fire- wood 



knees and all in all we were drenched. 

A cariiage was now engaged to ride through the 
town, a bit of a place set into the side of the dirt hill, 
with perhaps two hundred houses. 

I took a picture of camels laden with fire-wood. 
I tried to get a good picture of the man in the fore- 
ground but he struck at me, snarled and cursed — I 
assume that he did, of course, as his language was 
unintelligible except as he scowled and sounded angry, 
spat at me and turned away. 
277 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

The conditions here are the hardest I have seen 
to which a man must submit, to hve. That these 
people can hve to old age in this sand, under such a 
sun, is beyond my comprehension, and I do not won- 
der that they are ugly. 

The women all wore veils that come up to the 
eyes, and long, flowing, dark, ample skirts, but as 
they ran every time they saw me looking at them — 
an entirely needless precaution on their part — I 
could not secure a very good picture of them. 

The monkey characteristics and snarly disposition 
of these natives are well shown in one of the pictures 
which includes part of our carriage. 

But it was ten-thirty. We had to hurry then 
and soon, foolishly paying our boatmen in advance, 
our party, Mrs. C, Mrs. Dalian of Singapore and her 
two boys were being rowed with our plunder from 
shore by four half -naked, ugly-looking young fellows. 

Instead of steering for the "Preussen" they, 
despite my expostulations, proceeded straight out to 
sea and left a native boy on an English war vessel. 
We were a half-mile from our destination, now in a 
heavier sea than such a boat should have been with 
our load, and we had less than ten minutes to spare 
if our ship sailed on the minute, as she was likely. 
You may imagine that just then was the moment 
when I perspired the most freely on this memorable 
day, and matters came to a crisis when we started 
for another ship still further away from our own. I 
leaped to my feet, drew a huge, keen, shining Japanese 
sword half out of its black sheath and made for the 
man nearest me. He promptly shielded his body 
with his oar, slipped backward and shouted vehemently 
"Sit down! sit down!" 

"Well, row then!" I answered pointing to the 
"Preussen;" and row they did, in the direction in- 
dicated, postponing to a later hour their other errand. 

The big ship whistled a warning note. We 
could see visitors leaving and I shouted to my crew, 

278 




A Side Street 




The Aden Snarl 



THREE HOURS IN ARABIA 

and showed them some money. This made our boat 
leap, and my anxiety was over. 

A flood fell on us from a runaway two-inch hose 
that was being used to wash down the decks in our 
absence. This event confused us a good deal, and 
the rolling of the ship did not add to our steadiness. 
To cap all, when the German sailor on the gangway 
seized the nose of our boat, two of my crew began to 
quarrel about which should take our packages aboard 
for, of course, the one who did wovdd procure a tip; 
and in the very midst of all the sloshing, pitching, 
and bounding from the steamer's side and other boats 
that bumped into us — for several were trying to 
land at the same time — these two fellows started 
a first-class fight, pulling each other's hair and clawing 
each other's faces. Had the "Preussen" sailor not 
had hold of our boat we should surely have capsized. 
I snatched our bundles from the bottom of the boat, 
where they had been dropped by the fighters, threw 
them on to the gangway, and then helped the ladies 
past the struggling, pitching natives. The German, 
waiting till the ship turned toward us, reached for Mrs. 
Chamberlin's hand and pulled her toward him as she 
leaped from our gunwale. The distance, however, 
was too great, and our careening boat was too uncer- 
tain, so that she only got one knee on the gangway. 
That splendid German, however, held her firm and in 
a second she was up. Mrs. Dalian had good luck, 
as our calculations were better. The boys and I 
sprang at about the same time and landed in one heap; 
but landed. I did not even stop to see the end of 
the fight but hurried for Mrs. Chamberlin and found 
her white and weak, suffering from mental collapse, 
due to fright and great pain; for her right leg, which 
did not reach the gangway when she tried to leap aboard, 
had swung underneath and struck the nose of another 
boat with some violence. It was several hours before 
she was fully revived, and as many days before 
she regained her accustomed mental poise. 

279 



CHAPTER XIX 



THE RED SEA 

At Aden, in the hotel, we had carefully inquired 
from passengers who had but just that day come 
through the Red Sea, as to the weather, and their 
reports were very encouraging although it was a 
frightful story they told. They had not had a breath 
of air except what came from behind them — which 
meant that they had none at all — although they 
reported that the wind was a heavy one. That was 
splendid news for us, as it would give us a strong 
headwind. 

Our informants, however, had had a terrible 
experience. As was often the case in this passage, 
lives had been given up. There was no sleep to be 
had, and passengers lay hour after hour panting for 
air, trying to get more into the lungs, slowly stifling. 
Nobody should ever make the trip unless there is a 
favoring wind, who is not in the best of health. 

To the most of my readers I assume it will be a 
surpi'ise when I say the Red Sea is over 1200 miles 
long, and 200 wide through much of its length. I 
know I had deemed it but a small pool of water, when 
in fact it is about half as long again as the journey 
through our own Great Lakes. 

The whole ship was agog now, for which I was 
primarily responsible. We wanted to visit the pyramids 
while the ship was passing the Suez Canal. The 
railroad runs from Suez, at the southern entrance to 
the canal, to Cairo, and from there to Port Said at its 
northern entrance. From the time of arrival at Suez 
till the steamer sailed into the Mediterranean from 
Port Said usually twenty-four hours elapsed, and that 
was all we needed if we happened to arrive at Suez at 
about six in the evening. That would give us the first 
280 



THE RED SEA 

haK of the next morning at the great mounds. It was 
the chance of a Hfetime, for most of us, we knew; 
and we wanted to go. But the Captam was opposed. 
He had contracted a cold, drunk a good deal of port 
wine and become surly; and he didn't want to do any- 
thing, nor did he want anybody else to do anything; 
but with more than a score of his passengers deter- 
mined to go if possible, we felt that we could make 
him toe the mark if we only reached Suez at train time, 
late in the afternoon. 

If regular speed were maintained, it was certain 
that we would reach Suez at noon which would defeat 
us; but we continued to lay our plans. 

My diary gives fairly the story of our next several 
days: 

"Monday, 5th Sept. Last night first after leaving 
Aden was the first in the Red Sea. I slept with no 
covering. Good breeze blowing and not uncomfort- 
able at all. Breeze to-day all day on port, not at all 
hot, if one sits where the breeze is. 

"I win sweepstakes to-day. Really, this is too 
easy money, 28 marks. Air, 91, 2-5°. 

"Tuesday, 6th Sept. Cooler than yesterday, a 
little too cool without a vest. Having headwind and 
whitecaps. Hotter sun at 7 a.m. than I have ever 
seen at noon-day. Sun would bore right into one's 
head. 

"Mrs. C. woke up yesterday with a boring forehead 
headache; continues to-day, but is somewhat abated. 
We slept in No. 1 last night till 6 a.m., then changed to 
No. 2. Air 88°. 

"Wednesday, Sept. 7th. Cool last night. Very 
strong wind from dead ahead, and as heavy a sea 
as we have had at all since leaving San Francisco. 

Madame was almost drowned in her berth at 

3 A.M. last night by a big wave entering the port-hole 
and flooding even the upper berth. Much of her 
clothing was injured and the shock made her ill. She 
was sound asleep at the time. She told Mrs. C. that 
just as she had succeeded in pulling her wet night 
281 



AROUJ^n THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

gown over head, and was wrestling to get her head 
free of it the first Steward rushed in and closed the port. 

"It was so cool last night that we had to sleep 
with our sheets on." 

My, but we were lucky! 

The sun of Canton is not to be compared with 
the sun of the Red Sea. As just noted, the sun over 
the desert at 7 a.m. is far more scorching than any 
sun I have ever elsewhere seen at noontime. Nobody 
who reads this would seriously consider the acceptance 
of $50 to stand uncovered for three minutes in the 
direct rays of the desert sun. The great ball seems 
doubled in magnitude, its rays trebled in intensity. It 
is the only sun I ever saw of which I was frightened, 
and to see it rise, as we did, over the brown sands of 
the Arabian desert, without a living thing in sight, 
animal, man, or vegetable, was a picture never to be 
forgotten. A thousand miles to the eastward, four 
thousand to the westward, that terrible power had 
blasted the face of the earth so that nothing created 
by God or man could live in its soil, parched it, browned 
it till it was the great waste of the globe. 

The heavy head wind had delayed us, bearing us 
back hour by hour, and we were jubilant. We were 
almost sure to be at Suez just at the most favorable 
time, at 4 p.m. Our train for Cairo would leave Suez 
at 5 P.M., arrive at Cairo at ten-forty that night, where 
we would have till 11.00 a.m., which would give 
us ample time. This would place us at the Pyramids 
by the first rays of the great sun as it came up over 
the desert, an experience of priceless value, and we 
would be at the "Preussen" in Port Said at 5.50 p.m. 

Not once in twenty times did a ship leave Port 
Said under twenty-four hours after arriving at Suez; 
and, besides, the regular running time from Port 
Said to Naples, of three days and eight hours, a certain 
factor of the problem, would bring us at the latter 
port by midnight if we left Port Said at six, and there 
was no use in getting into Naples in the middle of the 



282 



THE RED .SEA 

night. Nobody could board us till sunrise. As the 
Captain's principal argument was that our train 
might be late, he had nothing at all to offer in opposi- 
tion when it was called to his attention that he would 
lose nothing by waiting several hours for us, if we were 
tardy, as, if the ship did not leave Port Said till ten 
that night (which would allow our train from Cairo to 
be delayed four hours in a run to Port Said of only 




Betty and her Motlier disagree 

about 150 miles, we would still anchor in Naples at 6 
A.M., an hour too early for any medical inspection. 

But he was obdurate, just balky. That was 
all — just wouldn't ; and I soon found that he was 
discouraging the project in casual conversation with 
passengers. We had determined to appeal to the 
company's agent at Suez to order the captain to wait 
for us at Port Said, and as all our success depended 
283 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

upon the unanimity with which we made our demands, 
the captain was pursuing very shrewd tactics to under- 
mine those who were weak-kneed. 

At four-ten we lay-to, off Suez, a mile out. The 
agent was at our side as the anchor dropped, and the 
Captain promised faithfully to propitiate him at once, 
to have the latter's steam yacht take us to the depot 
and to order the ship to await at Port Said up to seven 
or eight in the evening, at least. 

Here we had a close medical inspection by French, 
Enghsh and German physicians who successively 
looked at every passenger of each class. The ladies 
were examined by an English woman. 

The pyramid people fretted a good deal, but no 
word came down to us from the Captain's cabin, till 
I could see that he had us beaten. We could not 
catch the regular train nor arrange for a special before 
the " Preussen " would be away. We were tricked by 
the sly, fat German. It was the great disappointment 
of the trip. 

The most I could do was to go ashore and cable 
for money to be sent to Naples and the agent placed 
his swift launch at my disposition for that; and of all 
the passengers I had the honor of being the only one 
to see Suez. It is a small place in the sand, half- 
European, half-native, with a large building for canal 
offices, a mosque and rows of low mud houses. The 
day was too far spent to admit of taking any pictures 
but I was in the land of the turban, the sandal, the 
long cotton robe, the veiled faces of women, the land 
of the white crescent on the red flag, and the land of 
the red fez. My companion was the son of the agent, 
who was also the German consul, and we could only 
converse in French. 

Still, — no vessel flying the American flag. 



284 



CHAPTER XX 



FOUR HOURS IN EGYPT 



At seven-fifteen in the evening of Thursday, 
Sept. 8th, we entered the Suez Canal. A searchlight 
had been attached forward, and this, aided by those 
of coming vessels, kept the waterway and banks a 
broad shaft of daylight in the midst of the night. 

I had been informed that this part of the voyage 
would be tedious. The fact was quite to the con- 
trary. There was a constant interest, natives passing 



The Train and Canal 

in the path on the bank, a way station, a vessel, huge 
dredges, a whistling train not over a hundred yards 
away and, in the morning the rising of the sun over the 
desert, a ferry at which waited several hundred camels 
— a great caravan from the interior of Arabia — a 
passing pair of porpoises, the only free users of the 
canal — a small expediiton of half a dozen stately 
285 



ABOUND THE WORLD IX NINETY DuiYS 




A Sail in the Canal 




Canal Station thiiieen miles from Port Said 

286 



FOUR HOURS IX EGYPT 

camels moving steadily beside us, their long-robed 
masters leading them by a single line, on the way to 
Port Said. 

We had a quick passage, fifteen and one-half 
hours for the one hundred miles; paying the canal 
company some $10,000 for the privilege; and at ten 
in the morning we were running by the wharves of 
Port Said, which appeared to be a large city. The 




To Coal Us 



principal building is that of the Canal Company, a 
large. Oriental affair, on the water front, where every- 
thing looks quite European. The native establish- 
ments are further inland. 

The famous de Lesseps statue stands at the very 
entrance to the canal and can be seen from any point 
on the water front. 

The small row boats, with white cloth tops, were 



287 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

bidding for our patronage. Here again, England 
controlled, and we all knew, in advance, just what 
the charge would be for such service. 

For many years Port Said was famous as one of 
the most immoral of places; but the old life is fast 
disappearing, and now one sees no worse photographs 
in the windows there than are freely posted in Paris 
show windows, and one may wander about in any 
part of the place with as much safety as in Boston. 

This was the last stop where we could buy 




A Passing Cart 

African goods, and to save time we employed a native 
with a red fez who talked English and wore a Cook's 
sign on his hat. The ladies wanted to see laces, rugs 
and silks. I was looking for armor, and we were in 
a shop that held what we desired before we had been 
in Egypt three minutes. The business section of the 
town is not over four blocks in extent. The streets 
are wide and smooth in asphalt. Everybody speaks 
English and a swarm of hangers-on asking to carry 
your purchases dog every step, so persistently that the 
288 



i 



FOUR HOURS IN EGYPT 



police have to drive them away. As soon as any 
purchase was made, a native seized it and attached 
himself to our retinue, with the explanation that he 
was the guide's brother. At the next acquisition, 
another boy joined us, a brother to the second one, 
and inside of twenty minutes I found myself walking 
along, followed by six brothers. They were the most 
importunate beggars I ever saw and it was impossible 
to shake them off except by main force. I finally 
seized everything they had that belonged to us, gave 




The Water Carrier 

it all to one boy and had a native policeman shoo off 
the others. 

I was offered a score of pieces of strange arms 
and armor, — splendid hand-carved blades with young 
crocodile-skin scabbards; snake-skin scabbards, a 
Zulu shield, an inlaid ivory and ebony Arabian flint- 
lock; daggers; a crocodile's head full of pistols 
and large knives, for $65. A Jap exhibited the 
various pieces, telling me that some were counter- 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

feits, explaining how one could tell. In this way he 
obtained my confidence and he had little difiiculty in 
selling me a number of pieces which, to my delight, 
were richly inlaid with silver. That evening, when 
Madame K examined my prizes with her thumb- 
nail I was aghast at seeing that the inlaid work rubbed 
off with little difficulty. It was all painted on! A 
dozen pieces, the best I had, are now a constant re- 
minder of how a cute little Jap got the best of me, 
so I think I shall give them all away some day to avoid 
becoming angry so often. 




Just ready to run 

As, however, I paid but $35 — about half his 
price — and what I secured could not be duplicated 
in America at all, it was not altogether bad. 

Rugs here were so cheap as to frighten an Ameri- 
can. For $10 a beautiful one could be had, and for 
$50 a marvel. 

At noon, practically all of our ship friends in- 
vaded the Continental Hotel, a European place, with 
tables outside, the only first-class hotel which the town 
could claim. 

Here one of the ladies of our party had an ex- 
290 



FOUR HOURS IN EGYPT 

perience that will make her cautious hereafter. At 
her request I had asked the European gentleman who 
appeared to be the manager, to have her shown to a 
room in which she could remove some of the smooches 
from her face, before dining. He was very anxious 
to accommodate. I left them walking up the stair- 
way. When she returned she was somewhat whiter 
than when I had last seen her, upon which I com- 
plimented her. Her pallor, however, was not due 
to her ablutions, and her voice was unsteady. I 
soon learned the story. She had accompanied this 




Parasol made for tivo 

fine, obsequious gentleman to a room, the door of 
which he opened for her, and, as she entered, he en- 
deavored to do so, too. She, however, was too quick, 
and he then opened one opposite, went in himself 
and upon her refusal to follow , tried to push her inside 
the door. Thoroughly aroused, and being strong, 
she eluded him and ran down to us. I was in a quan- 
dary what to do with that fellow, but finally concluded 
to do nothing. Any disturbance might cause us to 
lose the steamer. 

291 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DATS 

After dinner, the two English Singapore boys 
— who had never seen their own country — and I 
hired donkeys and started to do the town. Each 
donkey had an owner who ran after us as fast as he 
could. The saddles were built up very high — as all 
heathen saddles are — and the little beasts kicked up 
at the slightest provocation 

We first visited the de Lesseps statue, a very 
impressive work of good artistic merit. Upon its 
base lay sleeping a number of natives, and others 
were stretched out upon the stone pier. 




Our Mounts 



The Creator never intended that one man should 
do two such vast works as Suez and Panama. 

Now we scurried, with many kickings and bolt- 
ings from our jack-rabbits, who were hard-bitted as 
the Old Scratch, into the native town. 

It was hard work to secure pictures of the women. 
They fled from my kodak like so many wild birds 
at the sight of a hound; but several shots I procured 
by strategy. I lulled their subjects into security by 
appearing to be oblivious of their proximity and then 
292 




^jji feii^;^ '■: ""^^^TJi^a?-" j 



To de Lesseps 




The Landing 




Fairly Caught 




A Yankee excites interest 



FOUR HOURS IN EGYPT 

suddenly whirled on them and made an instanteaneous 
exposure before they awakened. 

We entered a Mosque. The building was of 
wood, entirely devoid of furniture of any kind and 
with a stone floor of various colors. As we passed the 
door an attendant slipped straw heelless slippers over 
our shoes, a man who appeared to be a priest took us 
into a small room to the right of where the pulpit 
ought to have been, closed the door, showed us a book 
he said was "Koran," a rather untidy Egyptian flag, 
a rug or two — prayer rugs, I take it — held out his 
hand and said "pay." I paid him a dime, or some 
silver piece about that size; but he expostulated and, 
of course, secured double the amount and he was still 
begging when I opened the doors and showed the boys 
out. Our straw slippers came off every yard, so that 
I finally abandoned them where they fell, and made 
for the open air, the priest at my elbow and two or three 
others extending their hands, touching my clothing, 
begging "Backsheesh! Backsheesh!" Some more 
money was paid at the door to the boys who had fur- 
nished us with the straw slippers, and we were free of 
all save the execrations of the priest. 

Our attendants complained by signs that we were 
running them too hard, in the sun, while the tempera- 
ture was, I learned, fully 90°, and we therefore moder- 
ated our pace. 

The native town was all low; the shops out of 
doors under wide awnings; sun dried clay evidently com- 
posing the most popular building material Through 
the main thoroughfare ran horse-cars started and 
stopped by a tin horn, I believe. 

At the hotel we discharged our donkeys, two 
porters brought my armor, our rugs, etc., and then, 
beside the canal, we stopped our party for the picture 
on the following page. The smaller pieces of my 
armor are shown on the native. 

In that picture, on the extreme left you'll notice a 
forearm, extending a glass toward somebody in our 
party. 

29.H 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




Some of my Armor 





Amm 



I 




We enter the Mediterranean 

294 



FOUR HOURS IN EGYPT 

That cost the Chamberhn family $5.00, and a 
native made a profit of at least $4.50. 

Mrs. C. was charmed with the brass pot from 
which the drink vendor had poured his beverages, 
and it took a sovereign to get it into my possession. 
In only two hours it was discovered that the thing was 
a fake of the worst kind, and had not an ounce of brass 
in it, but was mere lacquer. We place the pot beside 
the fifty-cent stein we purchased of the kind smoking- 
room steward of the "Preussen" for $3.00 — which 
he said he would sell to nobody else at any price. He 
was surely telling the truth; but he was unaware of it. 

But at last we were aboard. A final fight was 
had with Cook's man, through no fault of his, and then 
we were where we could be cheated no more. 

Promptly at three we steamed toward the Medi- 
terranean. We had turned the corner. 



295 



CHAPTER XXI 



THE MEDITERRANEAN 



In an hour from the time we left Port Said we 
passed from the tropical country of Egypt with its 
temperature of 90° to the temperate zone, with the 
glass showing only 65°. For the first time in fifty 
days we were out of the tropics, and I tell you the 
change was welcome. It seemed to me as if I were 
years younger. The dangers that had beset the 
wonderful woman who had said she would go with 
me until she dropped down, were over, and the bracing 
air of the new sea into which we were now entering 
brought color to her cheeks and a quick energy to her 
flagging spirits. 

x\t five that evening we were in plain sight of 
Alexandria, that ancient city of strange history. 

Now we prepared for debarkation. This was 
Friday evening; Monday morning, early, we should 
be in sight of Italy and Sicily, and that night we wovdd 
drop anchor, our long journey in the good "Preussen" 
at an end, under the dark form of Vesuvius. 

Here came the problem of more baggage, for in 
addition to my armor we had purchased one of those 
steamer chairs. The ship's carpenter built me a box, 
and the second officer promised to transfer the chair 
and everything but our dress suit cases to an Atlantic 
liner at Southampton. Across the continent we would 
take but hand-baggage. Our other belongings now 
were three large trunks, the sailor bag and the Canton 
china. For a couple of dollars I insured the whole 
lot for several hundred and worried no more. 

About nine-thirty in the evening, first night out, 

I noted a new face, whose owner promenaded our 

deck, speaking to nobody, but looking at us all. He 

scowled continuously, and looked so unfavorable that 

296 



THE MEDITERRANEAN 

I called an officer's attention to him and soon we had 
a story that was the prize tale of all our journey. 

At the evening concert, which we had not attended, 
a young Dutchman, one of our cabin passengers from 
Java, had in a spirit of fun run to the deck below, 
where the band was playing, inverted an umbrella 
and held it up for the cabin passengers to drop con- 
tributions into, while he imitated an Italian organ 
grinder; and I guess he did it very well. 

At any rate", when the officer intei-viewed our 
scowhng passenger he obtained the information that the 
visitor was searching for the young performer to chal- 
lenge him to a duel on the ground that the Dutchman 
had insulted the Italians aboard, and their nation. 

It may be imagined that our deck was soon cleared 
of the gentleman's presence, and after a hearty laugh 
we supposed the incident closed; but the next day 
the Dutchman received a note stating that if he set 
foot on shore at Naples or Genoa he would be stabbed. 
He remained on the "Preussen" at Naples, the only 
passenger who did, while everybody else went out to 
see the town; and I have no doubt he did likewise at 
Genoa. 

"Saturday, 10th Sept. Very cool last night. 
Covered myself with steamer rug. Packed up curios 
to-day. Worked several hours on report, i^ir 77°. 

"Sunday, 11th Sept. Very cool last night. 
Covered with steamer rug. Thunder-storm in early 
A.M. Went into ladies' cabin to save a sparrow-hke 
bird from the cat. There were two of these very small 
birds in the cabin. Air 74°." 

The next morning we were in sight of Italy at 
seven o'clock. Its huge mountains towered to the 
sky, and soon those of Sicily came up upon the port 
side. Then was the passage of the narrow Straits of 
Messina, with the land only half a mile away on either 
hand. 

All day I worked hard on my Philippine report, 
the air bracing me, my nerves thrilling with the joy of 
the coming deliverance, the temperature only 74°. 
297 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

At noon we passed Stromboli, from which issued 
a wreath of white steam that showed it was still of the 
living. 

Now a serious question arose and that was the 
tipping of the various stewards and other employees 
of the ship. To my surprise I learned that they were, 
even up to the highest officers, paid but pitiful sums, 
and the situation was just this : that if we, the passengers 
did not pay them, they would receive practically noth- 




Stromholi 



ing. The band, we learned, was a voluntary affair, 
and for its services the company paid not a cent. 

Here, then, was a large expense for which this 
family, surely, had not made provision. Of course 
we expected to tip everybody. But we did not antici- 
pate the assumption of the wages! of practically every 
servant with whom we came in contact. 

The "chits" which we had signed, for the various 
298 



THE MEDITERRANEAN 

departments, were sedulously kept separate, so that 
when we were ready to pay, we had to see the head 
steward, the baggageman, the carpenter, the smoking- 
saloon steward, the bathroom steward, etc., etc., all 
separately. As a rule the passengers donated fully 
$30 a-piece for tips. I refused here. It was a species 
of misrepresentation to advertise passage to Europe 
for a certain sum and then in addition, and without 
your knowledge, rely upon you to pay the wages of 
the people whose services the company had contracted 
to afford you free. I balked, and gave away $15. 

The wages this great boastful company pays is a 
disgrace. They do not average more than half what 
similar employees receive on American ships, and the 
German custom leads to an exhibition of fawning, 
hypocrisy and a degree of subserviency that was 
often disgusting. 

Everybody owed everybody else. I suppose I 
had borrowed money at various times of over a score 
of the passengers. As many had certainly done so 
of me. Where there were so many strange coins 
that were good in one port and bad in another, every- 
body had to help anybody who was temporarily 
stranded. Then miscalculations, sudden, unexpected 
purchases and no opportunity to secure remittances, 
all combine to abet a common use of all the money on 
board, no matter to whom it belonged. But nobody 
lost anything. My family were in debt over $75 until 
we arrived in America, and I am not yet paid all that 
was owed to us; but all of it is good. 

Dinner that last evening was a gala affair, such 
as obtains the last night in a German Atlantic liner, 
with profuse decorations, procession of Chinese lan- 
terns around the dining-room, special music, and a 
notable menu. 

As the darkness came on, far up in the air, on the 
starboard, at intervals of a minute, with a variation 
of less than ten seconds, a red hght appeared, such as 
one would have expected to see coming from a large 
lighthouse. 

299 



• AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

"Vesuvius! Vesuvius!" the old travelers ex- 
claimed; but it did not seem possible. So regular 
were the recurrences that it seemed hardly possible 
that so huge an inanimate thing as Vesuvius could 
send out into the black night this bright light, and for 
several hours the ship's company were divided on the 
matter. Old travelers could not speak with author- 
ity, as none present had ever seen the volcano alive. 
But they were correct, and we were to visit Naples 
when Vesuvius was in eruption, the first time in thirty 
years ! More good fortune ! 

Soon Naples came out of the blank that lay before 
us,' and the scene was very beautiful. The city com- 
mences at the water's edge and extends up the steep 
slopes of a high hill, even to the very summit, which 
latter is surmounted by a huge castle-like structure 
that adds a fitting crown to the giant formation upon 
which it rests. Along these slopes, long lines of street 
lamps hung like glittering pendants from necklaces 
that, one above the other, had been thrown around the 
hill, — while gleaming bars from a thousand windows 
on the sea level painted the waters of the bay, and a 
myriad of blazing port holes and hundreds of green, 
red and white signal lamps told where the great ships 
lay, pulling softly at their moorings. 

It was the Bay of Naples. 

At exactly twelve, midnight, our heavy anchor 
splashed into the waters, six hours in advance of the 
time calculated when we left China on the other side 
of the world. What marvellous things men can now 
do. Fifty years ago no estimate could have been 
made nearer than several weeks of the date of the 
completion of such a voyage, aye, even months. In 
those days it was guess and not calculation. 



300 



CHAPTER XXII 



VESUVIUS 

In the early morning we arose to see the sun come, 
up behind Vesuvius, and not long after we were sere- 
naded by minstrels of both sexes, on port and star- 
board, singing to the accompaniment of guitars and 
tambourines, — an invariable experience for travelers 
landing at this port. 

We had already decided upon the Grand Hotel 
de Londres, and one of its couriers took care of our 
baggage, a service for which the hotel made an out- 
rageous charge of $2.00. 

After putting our baggage through the custom 
house in ten minutes, I made a hasty visit to the bank, 
where I discovered that the money for which I had 
cabled for from Suez had not arrived. I was told at 
the steamship office that my cable from Singapore 
for reservations on the "Kaiser Wilhelm II." had been 
received and my request had been acceded to. 

It. was the morning of Tuesday, the thirteenth of 
September. "The Kaiser Wilhelm" II. was to leave 
Bremen just a week later, and it was necessary for us 
to arrive in that city (the night of the nineteenth. There- 
fore, we had seven days for Europe. We wanted to 
visit Naples, Rome and Venice, and ride through 
Switzerland by day, and down the Rhine by steamer. 

"^On the "Preussen" I had studied out all the 
trains and as there was no time allowed for unexpected 
delays, I ^decided to try Cook's agency. Railroad 
officials will often tell you flat falsehoods about con- 
nections, through trains, etc., etc. To travelers who 
will use Cook's system when it is needed, the institu- 
tion is a wonderful convenience. In the first place 
you can, in one neat little book, secure all the railroad 
transportation you will need in all the countries in which 
301 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

you will travel. Moreover, your trains are all ex- 
plained, and a wire ahead to any station where you 
intend to stop brings a Cook's agent to meet you at 
the train. He takes charge of everything; transfers 
your baggage, tips those who should be tipped, selects 
the best seats for you in the cars, takes you to see just 
what you want to see, superintends all your money 
transactions, your necessary purchases — things which,, 
when you know not a word of the languages and can- 
not tell one piece of money from the other, make the 
difference between insufferable annoyance and sere- 
nity, — and for all this you tip him nothing or any- 
thing, as you please. Furthermore, there is always 
the satisfaction of feeling that you are in safe hands; 
and that in Europe is often a great relief. 

We finally decided to ignore Venice and spend 
more time in Naples and Rome. 

The first thing on our program was Vesuvius. 
We probably should never again see it in eruption. 

Cook owns the railroad up the volcano. (The 
round trip tickets were $4.20 each.) 

To reach this railroad of Cook's one has to ride 
for an hour through the streets of Naples to the out- 
skirts; and, as some of these streets are paved in 
cobble stones the journey is not altogether delightful. 
To add to our discomfort a begging boy, running be- 
side the barouche in which one of our boys and Madame 

K were seated, snatched at a golden locket that 

hung from her neck. All he accomplished, however, 
was the breaking of the frail chain; for the lady was 
too quick for him. The incident, however, frightened 
her so much, that she could enjoy little for the remainder 
of the day and did not dare go up to the crater. 

Neapolitan homes have their gardens in the rear, 
glimpses of which, with their regular walks, sym- 
metrically cut hedges and classic statuary one may 
procure through the courts that lead from the street. 

We are not favorites of the Italians, we Ameri- 
cans, by any means, if my judgment of the scowls 
cast upon us is well founded. Beggar boys assailed. 
302 



VESUVIUS 



us, running by our carriages, for long distances, turn- 
ing handsprings until in sheer pity we gave. 

Arrived at the railroad station, we seated our- 
selves vis-a-vis in an open electric trolley car, — 
overhead system. The track led through miles of 
vineyards loaded with blue and white grapes. At 
several points the grade was apparently as steep as 
at any point on the Mt. Washington railway. 

As we ascended higher and higher we left the 
vineyards and were surrounded by hundreds and 




From the Edge of Najtles 

hundreds of acres which were totally buried in lava. 
One large tract, fully a mile square, I judged, was 
covered by the 1872 eruption — the last great one. 

Of this tract, I made a flying shot from the car 
window as we whizzed along. 

For much of the journey, the summit of the vol- 
cano was in full view. Almost every minute a puff of 
smoke was blown high up into the air. Between 
these the smoke was entirely dissipated. 

The ladies of our party alighted at a hotel about 
half way to the summit. 

303 



ABOUND THE WORLD IX NINETY DAYS 




Twenty Square miles of Lava 




The Cable Line 
304 



VESUVIUS 

Arrived at the base of the dome of the volcano, 
we exchanged our electric car for a cable car, such as 
is used at Niagara for descent to the Rapids. The 
grade here was fully forty-five degrees, as may be 
seen in one of the pictures. The fence-like appear- 
ance running up the side of the slope is the cable line. 

In perhaps ten minutes we were at the highest 
point to which this car ascended, say three hundred 
yards from the crater. 




Up the Line 

Immediately upon leaving the conveyance we 
were assailed by a small troupe of guides. The father 
of them all informed us that the Italian government 
compelled employment of official guides, and that the 
charge was fifty cents per person. 

As soon as we were divided among the guides 
we commenced to move up in the path which could 
be seen in the ashes. The walking was exceedingly 
305 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

tiresome, and at times the grade was very steep. 
But tlie latter was of little consequence when compared 
with the inconvenience to which the yielding ashes 
condemned us. Our feet sank deep into the soft, 
almost flaky soil, and much of each step would be 
lost by sliding back. 

I secured a fortunate picture that will illustrate 
what I have just described. 




The Climb to the Crater 



A company of hangers-on with ropes, canes and 
chairs, surrounded us and plodded along near at hand 
patiently waiting till somebody should tire. 

A number availed themselves of these aids, 
and were pulled up or carried up. Two cents was the 
munificent reward for the rental of a cane or the end 
of a rope attached to the Italian gentleman who dragged 
one along. 

306 



VESUVIUS 

When within what appeared to be one hundred 
and fifty feet of the crater, from which the smoke 
belched forth, we were hahed, and told that nobody 
could mount higher. 

This was disappointing, and I studied the situa- 
tion a bit. I had read of those who had actually looked 
down into the crater, and here we were fifty feet below 
it — and close to it. The monster breathed regularly, 
usually with a swish that was much like the sound of 
escaping steam. At times, however, the column of 




An Easy Breath 



smoke would rise in entire silence. 

This seemed a bit tame, and I deemed it over- 
caution or an itching palm that kept us where we 
were. I wanted to see the wheels go around. I 
wanted to look down into the crater. 

I edged my guide off to one side. 

"Can't you take me up to the crater .? I'll make 
it worth your while." 

"Can't do it, sir." 

"Why not.^ What is to prevent you.^" 
307 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

"We can't do it, sir, not while she's Hke she is 
now." 

"Oh, pshaw! There's no danger. Look at that .'' " 
as a silent, black breath puffed upward. The thing 
looked as calm as a teakettle. 

"There is danger, sir." 

"But you guides go up there every day, don't 
you, to see just what the conditions are .'^ Why can't 
we go up.''" I regarded my knowledge of this alleged 
fact as a strong lever. 

"No, sir; we don't. None of us have been up 
farther than this since she began to act this way ten 
days ago." 

"I'll give you ten francs ($2.00) if you'll take me 
up there. America against Italy! Come on! I'll 
go if you will!" 

"I would not do it if you would make it a hun- 
dred. If we went and were injured, you would, per- 
haps, go on to America in a day or so and be just as 
well off as if nothing had ever happened, but I'd lose 
my position. That would hurt me for life. Do you 
see why we do not go any nearer the top.^" 

Nor could' he be swerved. He kept very close 
to me, as if he divined the thought that was in my 
mind that the thing to do was to make a break for 
freedom. Before they would know it, it seenled to 
me, I could cover the interval that separated us from 
the crater. 

In three minutes more I would have made the 
effort. But good fortune favored me. 

For the first time the monster did not breathe 
regularly. He was holding his breath. 

" Look out ! Look out ! Now you will see ! When 
she does that there is going to be trouble!" 

About one hundred seconds later the giant, im- 
patient, suddenly spouted up with an angry snort a 
larger, higher column of smoke than any we had yet 
seen, accompanied by hundreds of pieces of lava and 
rocks, which could be plainly seen as they ascended 
far toward the sky. Some of these pieces were as large 
308 




Green and White Sulphur 




An Angry SnoH 




Now prepare to dodge 




Vicious 



VESUVIUS 

as one's head, and there was hterally a shower of them 
as they descended to the ground, and rolled from all 
sides of the cone, many of them rattling down toward 
us. That column of smoke was at least fifty feet in 
diameter. 

"Now, do you see.^" asked the guide, with a 
grim smile. 




The Site of Povipeii and, Herculaneum 
Pompeii is in the Centre 

I saw. One could hardly have escaped an acci- 
dent had he been in that shower of rocks. 

For half an hour, four of us stood our ground and 
photographed these explosions. The heavy ones were 
always foretold by the interrupted breathing. Upon 
a number of occasions the rocks came so near that 
some were secured as souvenirs. They were too hot 



309 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

to take in the bare hand, and readily retained impres- 
sions of coins that were pressed upon them. 

Moving to the right of the path, we came upon a 
number of holes, perhaps a foot in diameter, from 
which hot steam or smoke was escaping. The cinders 
around these openings were hot. These places occurred 
frequently. It was plain that we were standing upon 
nothing but a thin shell, pierced in many places, be- 
neath which were enormous fires. 

Soon we were in sight of Pompeii and Hercu- 
laneum. Pompeii looked, way down in the valley, 
like a deserted burned town, with its blackened, fal- 
ling, ruined, roofless walls. 

Then the volcano did its very best for us, and 
more than once we dodged large rocks that struck 
around us. I secured two particularly good photo- 
graphs of this last spouting. Scores of rocks are 
plainly visible in them. 

The exhibition was over, and I am willing to 
admit that the experience looks to me now to have 
been too full of risk to recommend it to others under 
the conditions then obtaining. 

Who could tell with any certainty how many 
rocks were going to be hurled into the air when that 
giant breathed again — how far they would be thrown 
— or in what direction ? 

By seven we were again in the city. 

That evening we retired early, and at ten the 
next morning all but myself of the six members of our 
party went to Pompeii. The best I could do was to 
haunt the Bank of Italy, where I expected my money 
to be cabled at any moment. At two in the afternoon 
it came, and after more or less of red tape I had it in 
my possession. 

At seven that evening we left for Rome and had 
the usual experiences of passing through a line, on 
either hand, of borrowing servants, extending from 
the hotel desk to the carriage door, waiting for a tip. 
A half-hour was consumed in weighing our baggage. 
No baggage, except what is in the hands is carried 
310 



VESUVIUS 

free over Italian roads — and no man who could con- 
nect himself in any way with the unloading, weighing 
and loading of it onto the train failed to do so — the 
most of them needlessly. Then each came for a tip. 
Money flowed like water. 



311 



CHAPTER XXIII 



At Rome we arrived at twelve-thirty at night, 
after five hours and a half ride; found a porter await- 
ing us, by telegraphic arrangement between our late 
host and our next one; and our advent into the Eternal 
City was a smooth one. 

Here we put up at the "Modern Hotel," which 
well deserved its name; a first-class place, with large. 




The Wonder of the World 



and equipped 
$^.00 per day 



elegant rooms, splendidly furnished 
with electric lights and telephones - 
for two, European plan. 

Early the next morning the porter, — who is 
the whole thing in all European cities, — had a splen- 
did guide for us. 

312 




The Coliseum 



^M 




In the Arena 




Trevi Fountain 








Hadrian's Tomb 



ROME 

That day we visited the Pantheon, St. Peter's, 
and the Vatican. 

St. Peter's is the wonderful building of all the 
world. Where other famous places may contain one 
or two notable scenes or works, St. Peter's has an 
hundred. It is so grand that one is thrilled to the 
very soul, and made all atremble. It is the most 
stupendous production known of intelligence, art and 
total disregard of cost. A day is all too short a time 
to spend within its vast domain, nor is one visit suffi- 
cient to permit its comprehension by any human being. 
To die without visiting St. Peter's is to have but half- 
lived. 

That night while the others were at rest, I attended 
a concert by a military band in one of the public squares. 

The next day, Friday, the sixteenth, we were at 
the Coliseum. 

Then we hurried to the garden of the Knights of 
Malta, to the palace of the King, and to the Quirinal — 
the Palace of the Caesars. 

From the first may be seen a picture alone worthy 
of a journey from America; of St. Peter's great dome, 
seen through a long, narrow lane of tall, green, shrub- 
bery, rising over the roofs of the city. 

The royal palace is a combination of execrable 
and excellent taste. This surprised me much, for I 
had supposed that art in the royal palace of Rome 
would be beyond criticism. But there were such 
attempts, in some of the rooms, to blend impossible 
colors as would make a person of good taste stand 
aghast. 

In Rome we did little purchasing, as we had no 
trunks. But do as well as we could — or would — 
the bundle of rugs began soon to assume the appear- 
ance of an inflated balloon. 

Rome ! 

As you stand on the Palatine, — the palace of 

the Caesars, — and follow with your eye the way 

along which Caesar was borne on the Ides of March; 

see the spot where he fell, — see where his body was 

313 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 




The Garden of the Knights of Malta 
314 



ROME 

buried, — see all the great Forum under your very 
feet, with the Coliseum beyond, you are dead to emotion 
if you do not feel something that never before entered 
your life, and you vs^ill thank God that you lived till 
this came to you. 

Here, under your very feet, is the scene of the 
working out of a great problem, the problem of the 
progress of the human race. Within your range of 
sight came and went a people with whom, in culture,, 
in poetry, in statesmanship, in art, in sculpture, in 
architecture, in oratory, in the power to produce classic 
design, our great American people is as a babe. And 
yet, here, in heaps of shapeless rocks, broken, fallen, 
neglected, is all that remains to show that the Romans 
were ever a living people. 

Are we, in all our strivings to approach unto 
them, but traveling the road that leads unto the abyss 
into which they disappeared .'' 

Does culture, refinement, art, the study of the 
gratification of the sense of the beautiful lead to de- 
struction ? 

No other people who ever were on this planet 
approached them except one — the Greeks — and both 
were snuffed out as is a candle by a breath of wind 
— leaving no posterity worthy of the name. 

How did they fall .'' 

"I can't, I can't understand it," is what I said as 
I stood overlooking it all. 

Rome is the one place to see if you never see but 
one again, and have never yet looked upon it. It is 
an exhaustless mine of scenic treasures. And what 
an atmosphere in which to live and work! I can see 
how, spurred by such tremendous history, even an 
average man would there become able to write or 
paint something immortal. Some message would surely 
come to him from those who lived two thousand years 
ago that would live for a like period after he had gone. 



315 



CHAPTER XXIV 



THE LAST OF EUROPE 

- At eight Friday evening, the sixteenth of Septem- 
ber, we left Rome by through train for Milan. 

The sleeping cars on that train possessed at least 
one advantage over those of our country, and that 
was a stateroom for each party of two passengers 
and this at no extra charge. The berths also were 
much wider than those in our cars. 

At Milan, at seven in the morning. Cook's man 
met us in response to a telegram; transferred our 
party and all their belongings with the assistance of 
porters, to our next train; arranged our breakfast; 
and did everything that any of us desired. 

Now we were started. We were to cross the Alps 
by daylight, through St. Gotthard tunnel, ride across 
Switzerland all day, and along the shores of Lake 
Lucerne for miles. Our next stop would be at Frank- 
fort, about ten that night. On Sunday we were to go 
down the Rhine, on the boat from Mainz to Cologne; 
stop there over night; see the Cathedral Monday 
morning and go on to Bremen Monday afternoon, as 
was required. 

The roadbed was smooth; the air was not too 
warm; and, except for the annoyance at Chiasso — 
the Italian-Swiss frontier, where all baggage had to be 
examined, — we had little to annoy any of us, except 
one of our boys, whose stomach had revolted and 
who lay in suffering patience till nature would give 
him relief. The porter, who could talk French, told 
me that the next station was Chiasso, and that the train 
would wait half an hour to permit the custom officials 
to investigate everything. 

As the train slowed, I hurried Madame K 

316 



THE LAST OF EUROPE 

and our English guest, Mrs. Dalian, to the platform, 
and thence after what we felt sure was our baggage 
on a fast disappearing truck. 

Mrs. C. remained aboard with the sick boy and 
his younger brother. 

An Italian gateman tried to explain something 
to us, as we passed, but as we did not know a word of 
his language we were at a loss to understand, shoved 
him to one side, and proceeded. But we could find no 
baggage, no custom officers, and, bewildered, we 
turned in time to see the train disappearing down the 
track. One of the ladies cried that we were left, but I 
pooh-poohed the suggestion and said "They're only 
going down to back upon another track," and felt con- 
tent. But when the train had vanished around 

the curve, I became alarmed. Madame K burst 

into tears, Mrs. Dalian was almost beside herself with 
excitement, and I was fairly off my pins for a moment. 
But instantly I recollected Mrs. C. She could handle 
any situation as well as any man, and I knew she 
would do the right thing. What was that ? She had 
no tickets and no money. She would leave the train 
at the frontier. 

Now we wanted somebody who could talk United 
States, French or German. The employees of the 
depot surrounded us. We tried our three languages 
on them but with no result. Finally a porter of an 
English hotel came sauntering in. 

"Where are we.?" 

"Lake Como." 

Not such a bad place. I had sufficiently re- 
covered now to observe to my trembling companions 
that I always wanted to stop here, anyhow. But 
humor was not popular. I had fallen from my little 
pedestal with a vengeance, for sure, in their excited 
estimations. 

The porter advised wiring to Chiasso, care of 

the conductor of our trian to tell Mrs. Chamberlin to 

stop there with all our baggage, and that we would 

follow on the next train, which would leave in an hour. 

317 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

That we did, and then hiring a barouche started out 
to see the town. 

After a five minutes' ride through narrow, crooked 
streets we came to a smooth road that lay within ten 
feet of the water and evidently encircled the entire 
Lake, which latter looked to be fully twenty miles long 
by two or three wide. The lake is bounded on all 
sides by huge hills, fastened to whose precipitous 
slopes are hundreds of expensive homes and hotels. 

Close by the road were the palaces of the very 
wealthy, with splendid flower gardens. A more charm- 



STRADE FERRATE DEL MEDITERRA.NEO 



TELEGRAMSIA IN TKAXSITO ' -^ 




^^\^^m4^^^^^ 









.£h. /^»?^^.^.^ -^^^ 






^ 



ing place to rest I have never seen, and this with such 
stories as my worried mind could evoke kept my com- 
panions from absolute despair. 

Just as the train drew up and we were stepping 
aboard a porter rushed to me and handed me the 
above message, which shall ever be famous in the 
annals of our family. 

At Chiasso we found her on the platform. All 
the baggage had been passed by the ofiicials, and was 
ready to be put on our train. 

318 



THE LAST OF EUROPE 

She had had her hands full. For an instant, she 
admitted, she was dumfounded when she realized 
what had happened, but the sight of that sick boy 
aroused her and she began to work. Appeal was at 
once made to one of our Dutch friends of the "Preus- 
sen," who, as luck would have it, was aboard. He 
offered her a handful of money. In the meantime, 
however, she had burglarized the hand-bags of the 
ladies who were with me and had discovered a solitary 
sovereign — not another piece — large or small. How- 
ever, that was something - — and with that she felt 
better and was able to decline the money offered. 

Wasn't that just like a Dutchman ? I can see 
him now, short, stocky, gray-haired, putting his hand 
into his pocket, without a moment's hesitation and 
offering a distressed woman every dollar he had with 
him. May all the Gods ever attend him ! 

k At Chiasso, which was reached in a quarter of an 
hour, she put off the boys and threw at them through 
the open window the thirteen pieces of hand-baggage 
which we carried, and a lot of pink and white garments 
which should not be mentioned above a whisper, for 
the ladies with me were not fully dressed; all to the 
great amusement of her scores of fellow-travelers who 
had alighted to pass their baggage. Then she sought 
for porters. They shied at such a strange lot of bag- 
gage and could see nothing that looked like a tip 
for their services. At that they were shown the 
sovereign and miracles were worked. Three or four 
attendants almost ran their legs off for her, and best of 
all they found somebody who could speak French. 
After that, she made good progress. The telegram 
was sent to me. The baggage was placed. Some 
refreshment was given to the sick boy, and she gave the 
sovereign to the porters. 

It was a good job. My telegram to her she re- 
ceived after our arrival. 

This incident altered our plans. The unexpected 
thing had occurred that always happens on so com- 

.S19 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

plicate^ a trip as we had planned, as I expected it 
would; and we had the spare time to remedy it. 

Instead of reaching Frankfort that night, we could 
now not arrive there until the next morning, (Sunday) ; 
the difference being a Saturday night on the cars 
instead of at the Hotel Bristol at Frankfort. 

One of the meanest things about European travel 
is the prevalence of counterfeit money. It will be 
given to you in change in the sleeping cars, in the 
dining cars, in the stores, and in every place where 




Switzerland 



you have a right to trust those in charge. It is evident 
that the natives have been waiting some time for an 
American to come along so that they may unload some 
of the mistakes they have made onto their guests. 
The dining car porter worked two bogus lire pieces 
(fifty cents) onto me between Naples and Rome, and 
I gave it to a porter there who lied to me. By the 
wonderful bow he made, I knew that he had not dis- 
covered my error when I left the city. 
320 



THE LAST OF EUROPE 

On our journey to Frankfort we wended our way 
in and out through the defiles of the Alps, then dove 
under them and came out in Switzerland, the land of 
sky-farms, of thrift and peace. That is the impression 
one secures from Switzerland — the content and at- 
tractiveness of the simple lives of its people. 

I doubt if any busy American ever went there 
without feeling that he was, — in all the hurly-burly 
of his fighting, racing career — throwing his life away. 
Everybody who visits Switzerland must want to tarry 
there. 

It is all that has been claimed for it. It will 
never disappoint you, no matter what description of 
it you may have read. 

Hurrying through it, as we did, at thirty miles 
an hour, it was a succession of beautiful pictures, — 
the sun flashing on a lake; a snow-covered crag above 
us; a river winding beneath; five miles length of a 
notch in the great hills in view for half a minute. 

Night found us at Basle, where we ate dinner in 
a barroom and then took a train for the night ride to 
Frankfort. At 5 a.m. we alighted, — without paying 
the porter for our berths, as he could not make the 
change, directing him to see us in the depot. 

But he did not obey, and I congratulated myself 
that we had at last beaten somebody in Europe, even 
if it was a party with no more soul than a railroad 
company. 

But there was no such luck. That evening when 
we took the train for Cologne, Mr. Porter was waiting 
for us. 

At Frankfort we patronized the Hotel Bristol, 
immediately opposite the station. There Madame 

K left us, at the end of her long journey, met by her 

little daughter, whom she had not seen in two years. 

So tired were we now that to avoid annoyance 
we decided to rest here and not go on till later in the 
afternoon, — foregoing the trip by boat on the Rhine. 

Barring several calls we passed a quiet day, the 
greater part of it spent in riding beside the Rhine 
321 



ABOUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

and within a very few feet of it; and I think we are as 
well satisfied as we would have been had we pursued 
our original plans. 

I suppose no other body of water can present such 
a series of pictures as this famous river. Its natural 
scenery is, I judge, inferior to that of the Hudson in 
the highlands; but the surmounting fortresses and 
castles complete and fill the Rhine picture until, allow- 




Before the Cathedral 



ing for the efl^ect on the mind of the thought of what 
tremendous events these embattled heights have wit- 
nessed, it becomes incomparable. 

At Cologne, where we arrived in the middle of 
the evening, we went to "The Harms," beside the 
station. That is another good thing about Europe 
— first-class hotels abound close to the railroad termini. 

In the morning we attended divine service at the 
322 



THE LAST OF EUROPE 

cathedral, the most impressive reUgious event yet in 
my hfe. 

All the people appeared to be really religious. 
Nobody who approached the entrance failed to enter, 
if only for a moment, — boys on their way to school 
with their knapsacks of books on their backs; busi- 
ness men, hurrying on errands; all slipped inside, 
bowed the head a moment to the grand music and 
then hurried away. I have never seen anything like 
that in America. We have to dress-up to go to church. 
Often I fear, as in my early life, we go to church to 
dress-up. 

The thing about Europe that I like best is its 
cosmopolitan life and independence. Each individual 
can develop himself to his complete stature; make the 
very most, for example, of his physical self; wear what 
becomes him best; trim his hair and beard as appears 
best to him, don a cloak if he likes it better than a 
coat; carry the cane he likes the best, even if it be an 
Alpenstock; appear in short trousers or long ones; 
wear velvet if he admires it — and nobody ever looks 
at him in criticism or points to him with derision — 
not even the smallest children. 

At Cologne, a young man entered the restaurant 
where we were seated. He wore knickerbockers, a 
corduroy Eton jacket, a long, flowing tie, carelessly 
knotted, while from his left shoulder hung a cloak that 
reached to his heels. His mustache copied that of 
the Emperor of Germany — an effect produced by 
little pins for sale by all barbers now, in that country. 
On his head was a Swiss cap with a small green feather 
in one side of it, and he carried a large stick not unlike 
those which men of 1620 carried along Massachusetts 
Bay. That man would have caused a block on Fifth 
Avenue, and would have been hooted out of New 
York by the loafers or street gamins on every corner, 
and insulted by the smiles of derision on the elevated 
and surface cars. But nobody looked at him twice in 
Cologne. Imagine appearing in Boston with a helmet! 

In leaving Cologne we got into a first-class mess, 
323 



AROUND THE WOBLD IN NINETY DAYS 

one of. the worst of the trip. Only excessive caution 
in insisting that all our party be at the station one hour 
before train time, prevented our undoing. 

Our Cook's tickets gave us passage from Mainz 
to Cologne by boat, but not by rail. The railroad fare 
between these two points we paid on arrival at Cologne, 
thus keeping our tickets intact for the purpose of 
realizing on the unused river ticket. About seven- 
forty-five I went to the depot with my ticket and one of 
the boys, cautioning the ladies to be at the hotel at 
nine, when I would call for them. Upon presenting 
my tickets at the street gate to the depot — nobody 
can even enter the upper part of the depot on the 
level of the trains without purchasing a ticket — my 
tickets were confiscated and by signs I was made to 
follow the officious ticket-puncher. But first I sent the 
boy back to secure the three tickets of those at the 
hotel, and to get them to me in all haste. When my 
captor took me to where we had last paid the fare from 
Mainz to Cologne, I knew what the trouble was. The 
man believed we had paid no railroad fare between the 
places mentioned. 

I explained, in English and in French, but all to 
no purpose. The most we could do was to raise our 
voices and get angry at each other. In despair I left 
to search out a waiter in the restaurant who, we acci- 
dently learned the night before, talked English, and, 
with his assistance, I secured the return of my tickets 
at the end of nearly half an hour of wrangling. 

As I turned away, the boy I had sent to the hotel 
to secure the tickets of the ladies returned to say that 
none of the party were there. 

Now I was frantic. I knew that gateman would 
not let them in and I could not leave to help them, and 
get the baggage checked, too. And there was not a 
moment to spare from the baggage. It was within 
half an hour of train time. 

Confronted by these complications, I went to the 
baggagemen. Three or four passengers were ahead 



THE LAST OF EUROPE 

of me. Fussing would do no good, so I merely per- 
spired for quarter of an hour. 

At last I was free. I had less than fifteen minutes 
to run two blocks; return with the three absent ones 
and the thirteen pieces of baggage; adjust the dispute 
about the railroad tickets; and board the last train 
that would enable us to catch our steamer. 

No such a thing was ever done in Europe. It 
was with a sinking heart that I told my boy companion 
where to stand till he saw my return, and leaped away, 
down the stairs, three and four steps at a time. 

But I heard my name called. I looked up. There 
was Mrs. C, the other two, and two porters with all 
our thirteen pieces. There is the trouble, it has just 
occurred to me, in that number thirteen ! 

"How did you get through .P" I asked breath- 
lessly. 

"Pushed through. He wanted to stop us but I 
pushed by him. He wanted our tickets but I wouldn't 
let him see them. I was too busy, and it was too much 
bother." 

I fairly shouted. She had waited till she knew 
something detained me, and then moved, and no two 
fat-witted German gatetenders could defeat her. 
She had saved us once more. 

Several minutes later, Mrs. Dalian left her hand- 
bag with $5,000 of jewelry in it on a table in the restau- 
rant and started for England, never missing it. I 
put her and her boys onto their train and turned to 
go to ours. As the car moved Mrs. C. appeared and 
handed the bag through the window. 

We could have owed her still more money after 
that. 



325 



CHAPTER XXV 



Thank goodness, the last knot was untied. 

To Bremen from Cologne was a ride of several 
hours, in an express train. The country is flat, but 
with its red-tiled roofs and huge windmills, is of a 
picturesque character. The fields appeared to be 
worked more by women than by men. Every Ger- 
man workman, apparently, wears a military cap with 
a visor. 

But the day was too cool and I contracted the 
first cold that had afilicted me since leaving America. 
With this touch of home life I began to feel quite 
natural. 

At Bremen we spent the night at the Central 
Hotel, across the street from the depot. 

The town was overrun with passengers for our 
ship, and all met at a famous Rathskeller filled with 
enormous casks, perhaps twenty feet in diameter, con- 
taining wines, scores of years old. 

At eight the next morning we were aboard the 
special train provided for the ship's passengers, and 
in an hour alighted at Bremerhaven and after another 
rather disagreeable two hours on a small launch, were 
beside the "Kaiser Wilhelm II," which was to be our 
home for the next week. 

We had been assigned to stateroom No. 440, a 
miserable, small, outside room. The whole room was 
about five feet wide by six long. This had been 
sold to us as first-class accommodation. It was an 
imposition, a misrepresentation, nothing more nor less. 

To add to its charms, there was an ash chute 
directly under it that played at intervals during the 
night, furnishing a noise that was fully equal to that of 
326 



HOME 

a Devil's fiddle. Moreover, we were down five decks! 
and yet, wonderful to say, our port-hole was fully ten 
feet above the waves. 

This was our third crossing of the Atlantic, and 
we soon discovered that ocean travel on such a steamer 
as the "Kaiser Wilhelm" is an altogether different 
affair from a passage on any other sort of boat. There 
is about the difference between the two that there is 
between crossing New York State on the Empire State 
Express and on an accommodation train. 

Think of seven hundred and fifteen first-class 




The Kaiser Wilhelm II 

passengers and never an instant of crowding! — two 
promenade decks some twenty-five feet wide, a quarter 
of a mile around, — a dining-room in which all are 
seated at once and served with the menu and service of 
the Waldorf-Astoria, to music of a first-class orchestra 
of twenty pieces; a music room; library, half a dozen 
restaurants, rooms for developing and printing pic- 
tures, wireless telegraphy; and absolute freedom to 
wear what you hke at all times; to have everything 
served that you want on deck, in your stateroom, or 
327 



AROUND THE WORLD IN NINETY DATS 

in the library, at any hour of the day or night! You 
are in a huge American hotel moving through the water 
at twenty-three miles an hour, with a certainty that 
you will catch the exact train you depend upon at the 
end of the voyage. It is no longer a question as to 
what day we shall arrive in New York, but at just 
what hour. 

Such accomplishments are wonderful, marvellous. 
But our ship contained many of the poorest staterooms 
I have ever seen. They were nothing but holes in the 
wall, and intending travelers will do well to assure 
themselves on the extent and particulars of their ac- 
commodation before reaching an irrevocable decision. 

The absolute independence of everybody aboard 
was complete. These hundreds of people were there 
only for a few hours. They represented many nations. 
They wore many costumes, and not one excited com- 
ment. There were no chance acquaintances to bother 
one's reflections or rest. One was as free from notice 
as on Broadway. 

Aboard were a fool-looking Prince and Princess 
and a number of the very famous Newport, New York 
wealthy people, the Vanderbilts, the Whitneys, the 
Goelets, the CarroUs, the Burdens, while the most 
sought after by the ladies was Maxine Elliot. 

The New Yorkers mentioned were about the most 
modest appearing people on the ship. Not once did 
they affect elaborate dress, and not a man of the num- 
ber donned a dress suit. The women wore almost no 
jewelry. The manners of all were those of quiet, 
good taste, and might well have been copied by those 
poorer people who tried to startle the ship by a new 
gown every evening, and by their loud voices. 

Another detail I noted was the complete absence 
of spirits from the table at which sat these New York 
society people. 

Our own lives aboard appear best told by my 
diary : 

"Tuesday, 20th Sept. Ship sailed at 11.30. 
Played pianola for three hours this afternoon. Secured 
328 



HOME 

another stateroom for to-night, as ash chute bothers 
Mrs. C. so she cannot sleep and she must get some 
rest. To-morrow we'll see if I can't hire a stewardess's 
room. Bad service in some departments aboard. 
After ringing just thirty minutes from the music room, 1 
was informed that the attendant was asleep. In course 
of fifteen minutes he appeared. Later in the evening 
was ten minutes in getting an answer to my bell, in 
an upstairs cafe. Ship rolls pretty badly. 

"Wednesday, 21st Sept. Arrive Southampton at 
about 9 A.M. Left at 12.45. Rode about town. 
Have a violent cold. Was ordered to drink three hot 
whiskeys from hand of a barmaid, who almost fainted 
when I gave her ten cents for herself. 

"Arrived at Cherbourg about five. Did not land. 
Left there at seven-twenty-eight this evening. Saw 
statue of Napoleon on the spot from which he con- 
templated the invasion of England. Heavy motion 
first hour and then quieted down. Lovely moonlight. 

"Thursday, 22nd Sept. Heavy motion all day. 
Fair and warm. Worked all day on report. Mrs. C. 
sick with malaria, and did not leave her bunk. Splen- 
did moon. 

"Friday, 23rd Sept. Hazy to-day. Motion much 
less than hier. My cold has left my throat and gone 
to my head; but I think the worst is over. 

"F. M. C. still abed, but much better; worked on 
report to-day. Expect to finish it by time we reach 
New York. Miles, 574, 23 11-12 an hour. Terrific 
speed. 

"Saturday, 24th Sept. 572 miles, 1546 from 
Cherburg. Finished report to-night. 

"Sunday, 25th Sept. 574 miles. At 5.15 a.m. 
F. woke me to shut port-hole, as a swash of water 
had entered. From that time began a gale from the 
southwest and the spray wet all decks and smashed 
against the windows of the library, fifty feet above 
the water-line. I spent the day on the sofa in library 
and would have been seasick if I had moved, so I 
kept quiet. Very ill all day. 
329 



AROUJSTD THE WORLD IN NINETY DAYS 

"Monday, 26th Sept. Gale over. F. M. C. and 1 
woke up at four-thirty and went to reading. Sun out 
lovely. Very weak to-day. 

"Tuesday, 27th Sept. Up at 4 a.m. We were 
then stopped oflf the Sandy Hook Light Ship. The 
cessation of the engines awoke us both instantly. 

" Had to stay down in the dining-room all the way 
up the harbor till we touched the dock, in order to get 




The Belle of the Kaiser Wilhelm II 

a chance to declare our baggage; a great disappoint- 
ment. We landed at ten, the exact hour predicted at 
beginning of voyage. At the Grand Central Station 
at ten-forty-five." 

To me the last hour of the voyage was the most 

exasperating of the entire ninety days' journey. You 

may imagine that I wanted to look at every detail of 

the entrance to New York harbor. Instead, I was 

330 



HOME 

imprisoned below in the dining-room with seven 
hundred and thirteen other passengers, impatiently 
awaiting my turn to reach one of the seven in- 
spectors to whom we could state the particulars of our 
baggage. 

This arrangement can be bettered by a little 
thoughtfulness. 

As we were informed by the circulars placed in 
the box at the office of the Steward, each returning 
resident of the United States could bring in free what 




Hello Chamb'lin ! 



he had started with, and any other articles not exceed- 
ing one hundred dollars in cost at the place of purchase. 
Those provisions liberated everything we had, and we 
were less than five minutes in passing. 

That night we spent at our own home in WoUas- 
ton and slept soundly for the first time in many weeks, 
for we had been going around the world in ninety 
days. The above picture indicates the manner in 
which our friends received us. 
331 



CHAPTER XXVI 



REFLECTIONS 

From Boston to Boston the time was just ninety- 
three days. Of that time twenty-six days were passed 
on land, the balance, sixty-seven, on the ocean. No 
gale attacked us, worthy of the name, until we were 
off Cape Cod, on the last day but one of the entire trip. 

Not a train was late, not a ship an hour overdue 
at any port, and we landed in New York at the exact 
hour set when we planned the journey from Manila. 

We never saw an American flag on any piece of 
shipping except in an American port, from the begin- 
ning of the journey to its termination. 

Once, while we were in the Indian Ocean, the 
"Prinz Heinrich," sister ship to ours, met us. She 
was half-way to her destination in Japan. We were 
midway to ours in Germany. 

We passed, a hundred yards apart, the band on 
each playing the German National Anthem. Every 
month in the year those steamers so meet, those bands 
so play. It must have made the Germans proud, 
who were aboard. A more inspiring sight could hardly 
be arranged, and it brought a peculiar strength to the 
meaning of the German lady who, that evening, to 
some of my complaints about our ship, said simply, 
"Perhaps you'll take an American line to Europe the 
next time." 

Well, there may be one when I am next in that 
part of the world; but just then I was unhorsed and 
trodden upon. c 

The only news about our great country that we 
saw on the journey, except when on United States 
territory, was that Mr. Jeffries had licked Mr. Fitz- 
simmons. 

The number of lies which were told about the 
332 



REFLECTIONS 

privations ahead for us by those who said they had 
been there would more than fill this book. From my 
observation I believe the average traveler becomes as 
great a liar when conversing with those who have not 
duphcated his experience, as does the latest recruit 
when he writes home to his best girl. 

As a general rule, those parts of the journey which 
were represented to us as the worst were the very best. 
For example, the trip far south to Singapore and 
through the Indian Ocean along beside the equator, 
hundreds of miles further south than our voyage across 
the Pacific, was by far the cooler of the two long voy- 
ages. But not a person who talked of the later voyage 
told us this was sure to be so. In many years that 
southwest Monsoon has never failed to blow. Like- 
wise about the Red Sea. Nobody ever told us that its 
passage against the wind was fairly cool. 

Some inquiries have been made of me as to the 
cost of our trip. For twenty-five hundred dollars, a 
couple could duplicate our trip, stay longer at the 
various ports, visit Japan, and the principal Chinese 
cities — also Bangkok and Calcutta, cross India by 
rail to Bombay, visit the Pyramids, Greece and Europe. 

Six months would be ample for such a journey, 
and the starting should be about October first; and — 
I believe — it will be the most profitable investment 
you ever made. It will teach you as nothing else, of 
which I know, that mere possession of money is of 
little importance and little worth. It will add to your 
mental stature. 

Do it. 



333 



APR 26 1S06 



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